From sue at circleofa.org  Thu Oct  1 06:04:54 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 2009 06:04:54 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] LESSON 275 - OCTOBER 2
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAAFUQkKhV8/lNrsZB+ZP4iHwBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>




LESSON 275 - OCTOBER 2

God's healing Voice protects all things today.

Practice instructions 

See complete Part II practice instructions in separate document. 
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open
Mind Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment
in meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore
peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the
day.

Commentary

Jesus tells us in this lesson that we need to join him in hearing the Voice
for God (1:3). <For the Voice for God tells us of things we cannot
understand alone, nor learn apart> (1:4). Notice that the joining Jesus
urges on us here is not primarily with one another, with other people,
although that is certainly implied; it is joining with him that is called
for.
If the problem is a belief in the reality of separation, that problem cannot
be healed alone and apart. Being alone and apart is the problem! Any
healing, any salvation, any enlightenment that the Voice for God brings to
us will be something that is shared.
I can join with Jesus in hearing the Voice for God; that is something I can
do now, in the privacy of my home, with no other people around. What I
hear-which is always some form of the message <God's Son is innocent>-is
something that applies to Jesus as well as to me, and to me as well as to
Jesus. I share it with him. Peace, safety, and protection come in letting go
of any mental defenses I have against Jesus and allowing his presence to be
with me. I own and acknowledge that Jesus and I share a common goal and
common interests. I see that he has no attack in his heart toward me, and I
have none toward him. <It is in this [joining] that all things are
protected> (1:5).

As I move out into the world, to meet with other people, I can extend what I
have found in Jesus' presence to everyone I meet. What he and I have heard
together is shared, not only between the two of us, but also with the Son of
God in everyone. I hear the Father's healing Voice, and it protects all
things, so that <I need be anxious over nothing> (2:2). All beings share
this common interest and common goal. We are all in the world for this one
purpose. Any perception of competition or attack on my part, or on the part
of another, is merely a mistake in perception, and is not anything to be
afraid of.
<The safety that I bring is given me> (2:4). I bring safety from my
companionship with Jesus to the world, and as I give it, it is given to me.
<Everyone I meet is safe with me today,> I can say. <And I am safe with
everyone I meet.> Each encounter is holy because I am holy. When the purpose
of the day is thus set as it begins, I can be sure of full direction. We
will be given very specific directions for our activity here within this
world, even if the world is only an illusion: <For Your Voice will tell me
what to do and where to go; to whom to speak and what to say to him, what
thoughts to think, what words to give the world> (2:3).

It is a healing Voice I hear, a healing that consists in sharing, in
joining, in having no separate interests. The joining is the healing. <The
healing of God's Son is what the world is for> (T-24.VI.4:1), and the
healing of God's Son in myself and everyone I meet is what this day is for.
Nothing else. Let today be a day when I especially listen for the Voice. Let
me <seek and hear and learn and understand> (1:2).

Alan Watts wrote a book called The Wisdom of Insecurity.1 As I remember, it
speaks about how seeking security is unwise because security for the ego and
the body simply is not possible. If you are constantly seeking security you
will drive yourself nuts. It is much better and wiser to accept the fact of
insecurity and to simply go with the flow of the universe.

When this lesson speaks of how listening to the Voice protects all things,
it is really saying the same thing. We recognize that we don't know the
answers, we can't figure everything out. We don't know <what to do and where
to go; to whom to speak and what to say to him, what thoughts to think, what
words to give the world,> but He does. Instead of constantly trying to
acquire the answers for ourselves, we stay in relationship with the Answer
Himself, the One who does know. Instead of having millions of our own in the
bank, we trust that what we need will be given as we need it, and don't
worry about it. 

We leave the running of the universe in God's Hands.

Our safety and protection is not something that resides in us, alone and
apart. It comes only from listening to the Voice moment to moment. We don't
know the road to heaven, but we walk with One who does.
WHAT IS THE CHRIST?

Part 5: W-pII.6.3:1-3

Christ, our Self, is <Home of the Holy Spirit> (3:1). The Course often
refers to the Holy Spirit as <the Voice for God>; this Voice emanates from
our Self, the Christ. This is His Home, where the Holy Spirit <resides,> so
to speak. When we sense an inner prodding in a certain direction, or, as was
the case with Helen Schucman (who wrote down the Course), we seem to hear
actual words spoken within our minds, it is the presence within us of this
<part> of our mind that makes this possible. Christ is <the link that keeps
you one with God> (2:1). If the Christ did not exist within us, we would not
be hearing these messages, because the link with God would be nonexistent.
(To go a bit further, if there were no link with God we would not exist at
all!) Therefore, the fact that we do sense these inner messages moving us in
the direction of God and of love proves that a link to God must still exist
within us. That, in turn, validates what the Course is saying: we are not
separated from God.

Secondly, Christ is <at home in God alone> (3:1). Again this is borne out in
our experience. The feeling of not being at home in this world is almost
universally acknowledged; at one time or another, it seems that everyone has
felt this way, some more strongly than others, perhaps, though we have all
felt this to some degree. Where does that feeling come from? Is it not
possible that we are not at home in this world? Given the widespread nature
of this experience, is it not likely that there is some part of us, at
least, which actually is not at home here at all, but only in God? The
Course advises us to listen to this inner voice that seems to be calling us
to come home to a home we cannot clearly remember, but which, somehow, we
know to be real (see especially <The Forgotten Song> in the Text [T-21.I],
or <I will be still an instant and go home> [Lesson 182]).

Christ remains <at peace within the Heaven of your holy mind> (3:1), as we
have already discussed in the last day or two. Whatever may be happening
externally, the Christ part of our minds stays eternally peaceful.

This is the only part of you that has reality in truth. The rest is dreams.
(3:2-3)

This is really a key statement. For most of us, this eternally peaceful part
of our minds seems very distant and hidden, something which, perhaps, we
connect with in times of deep meditation. The <real> part of our
consciousness seems to be the agitated and confused part. The Christ within
we may acknowledge to be real, but it seems to be only a small part of what
we are. In reality, this lesson says, that deeply tranquil and holy <part>
is the only real thing about what we think we are; the rest is only dreams.
I think this is often the source of fear for many of us. The idea that most
of what we think of as ourselves is not real at all, but only a dream, is
rather terrifying. We have so identified with these aspects of ourselves,
and have become so convinced of their reality, that the idea that they might
dissolve and disappear if we really got in touch with the Christ within
ourselves is frightening. It seems like some kind of death, or personal
annihilation, as if the bulk of our person were simply going to be erased in
some kind of cosmic lobotomy. The Text speaks often, and strongly, about our
fear of finding our Self (see, for instance, T-13.II-III). One such
statement is:

You have built your whole insane belief system because you think you would
be helpless in God's Presence, and you would save yourself from His Love
because you think it would crush you into nothingness. You are afraid it
would sweep you away from yourself and make you little, because you believe
that magnitude lies in defiance, and that attack is grandeur.
(T-13.III.4:1-2)

Consider this from the other side of the question for a moment. What if the
bulk of what we believe ourselves to be is only a dream? What would we lose
if we lost it? Nothing. Nothing but dreams of pain and suffering, nothing
but our profound sense of loneliness.
Enlightenment does not destroy individual personality. It does not destroy
anything at all; it only removes dreams and illusions. It takes away what is
not and never has been true in the first place. The Christ is the only
<part> of ourselves that has any reality at all, and the only loss we will
ever experience is the loss of things that have never been.






From sue at circleofa.org  Fri Oct  2 06:13:16 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2009 06:13:16 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 276 - October 3
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAAHULwrXnD6JNmU8EnhqbWaoBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>




LESSON 276 - OCTOBER 3

The Word of God is given me to speak.

Practice instructions 

See complete instructions in separate document. 
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open
Mind Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment
in meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore
peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the
day.

Practice suggestion: The following is a visualization inspired by this
lesson.

	Imagine that you have traveled to the Middle East, 
	far out into the desert.
	You have come all this way to visit an ancient temple, 
	which contains a holy relic.
	See yourself standing before it. Perhaps it is one of 
	those temples carved from the rock of a cliff.
	You walk through the entrance and into a massive room, 
	with lofty ceilings and shafts of sunlight shining through high
apertures.
	You walk down the central aisle and reach a flight of 
	stairs on the other side of this room.
	As you walk up the stairs you are filled with anticipation 
	for what you are about to see, the artifact you have journeyed 
	all this way to look upon.
	At the top of the stairs is a corridor. You walk down this 
	and reach a heavy, ancient curtain, on the other side of which 
	is the inner sanctum of this temple, the holy of holies.
	You pause, thinking about what lies on the other side of the 
	curtain, in this room.
	For in this room is the very stone tablet on which God 
	wrote His Word in the time of Moses.
	What artifact could be holier?
	You walk through the curtain and there, in the middle of 
	a room filled with candles, is the stone tablet. 
	Hardly breathing, you walk up to it and read the words 
	carved into it so long ago by the Hand of God.
	It says, <My Son, known as...> and here, to your 
	astonishment, you see your own name, <is pure and holy as Myself.>
	Your eyes are rooted. You can scarce believe what you read. 
	What can it mean that this was God's Word to humanity, 
	that this was God's message for the ages?
	While you are looking at the tablet and seeing its words-
	<My Son, known as [name], is pure and holy as Myself>-try 
	to take it in. Try to let the magnitude of this truth sink 
	all the way in. Let it wash over you like a wave of realization.
	Now look around and see that the perimeter of the room is 
	lined with other stone tablets. 
	As you walk over to these you see that they have the same line 
	carved on them, only with a different name on each one. 
	Each one has the name of someone you know.
	Spend a minute or two now, going around the room, looking at 
	each tablet and seeing there the name of a different person in your
life: 
	<My Son, known as [name], is pure and holy as Myself.>
	After you have spent time looking at each tablet, and have 
	had one last sacred look at the one in the middle with your 
	name on it, you are ready to leave the room.
	Being here and seeing what you've seen has been a holy 
	experience, one that will leave you forever changed.
	You realize now, as you stand before the curtain, 
	ready to exit, that your life has changed. 
	Your job now is to bring this message to the world, 
	not just by talking about the truth you've discovered, 
	but mainly by conveying this stupendous truth 
	with the way you behave towards people. 

Say, <The Word of God is given me to speak, with my lips, my hands, my eyes,
my deeds, my life, my love.>

Commentary

The phrase <the Word of God> in A Course in Miracles is defined here as <My
Son is pure and holy as Myself> (1:2). In another place it is said to be <I
am as God created me> (W-pI.110.11:4-6). We were created by this Word; as in
the Bible, He spoke, and it was so. <God said, 'Let there be light,' and
there was light> (Gn 1:3). Even so, God spoke, <My Son is pure and holy as
Myself,> and the Son, pure and holy as God, came into being. God's Thought
of us was His creative act of Fatherhood; it stands unaltered and
unalterable. I cannot make my Self other than God created me.

	Let us accept His Fatherhood, and all is given us.	(1:5)

Hearing His Word is accepting His Fatherhood, accepting that we were created
in His Love and can be no other than what He created us to be. It is to
accept the Atonement (see M-22.1:6), the unassailable fact that I-that is,
my true Self and not my ego image of myself-am as pure and as holy as God
Himself.

	And it is this that I would speak to all my brothers, who are given
me to cherish as my own.	(2:2) 

What I want to communicate to my brothers and sisters is that they all share
this innocence with me. My grievances, my judgments, or my criticisms
communicate guilt. My forgiveness communicates their innocence. Father, show
me how to communicate the Atonement today; show me how, in word and deed, to
speak the Word of God: <You are as pure and holy as God.>

This clearly relates to the lead-in page on the Christ: 

	Christ is God's Son as He created him. He is the Self we share.
(W-pII.6.1:1-2)
	This is the only part of you that has reality in truth. The rest is
dreams.	(W-pII.6.3:2-3)

WHAT IS THE CHRIST?

Part 6: W-pII.6.3:4

	The rest is dreams. Yet will these dreams be given unto Christ, to
fade before His glory and reveal your holy Self, 	the Christ, to you
at last.	(3:3-4)

I may think, <Okay. Christ is the only real part of me. All the rest, the
stuff I think is really me most of the time, is just dreams. But these
dreams seem very, very real to me. What the heck do I do about all these
dreams?> The answer is in three words: the dreams are <given unto Christ.>
The Course often asks us to do this in varying forms; it speaks of bringing
our darkness to the light, of bringing our fantasies to reality, our
illusions to the truth. We, in our confusion, cannot see the truth about
ourselves or others, because we are blinded by our illusions. The Holy
Spirit was created for us to see the truth on our behalf until we can see it
for ourselves (see T-17.II.1:6-8). He represents Christ for us, in us. We
bring our dreams to Him, and He translates them into truth (4:1).

In practical terms this means that when I become aware that I am seeing from
the ego's standpoint of separation and attack, I need to become quiet, and
gently expose these beliefs to the Holy Spirit within my mind. I need to
tell Him, <This is how I am seeing things. Show me how You see them. I am
willing to see them differently.>

Our natural (read <egoic>) response when we discover dark thoughts in our
minds, thoughts like anger, jealousy, self-pity, and despair, is to hide
them, unless we are so blind as to totally identify with them and justify
them. Embarrassed at our misthoughts, we attempt to sweep them under the rug
and pretend they are not there. This does not dispel them, it merely causes
them to go underground. For instance, in speaking of the ego's hatred, the
Course teaches that we seek special love relationships to offset our hatred.
It says:

    You cannot limit hate. The special love relationship will not offset it,
but will merely drive it underground and out of sight. It is essential to
bring it [the hate] into sight, and to make no attempt to hide it.
(T-16.IV.1:5-7)

Hiding our unpleasant thoughts is denial. It leads straight to projection-we
see our hidden thoughts played out by others. We think we gain ego points by
condemning the other people. When we are upset by the mistakes of others,
this is what is happening (see T-17.I.6:5).

When, instead, we make no attempt to hide our own ego, but willingly bring
it to the light within us to be dispelled, it is dispelled. We don't have to
understand how this happens, because we do not do it; the Holy Spirit does
(see T-17.I.6:3-4). All we need be concerned about is being willing to have
it happen. When the illusions which are hiding the truth are dispelled, our
holy Self, the Christ, is revealed to us at last (3:4).
 





From sue at circleofa.org  Sun Oct  4 07:36:29 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 2009 07:36:29 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 277 - October 8
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAACeSod/cyWxElDfHQe23py8BAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>




LESSON 277 - OCTOBER 4

Let me not bind Your Son with laws I made.

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

See complete Part II practice instructions in separate document. 
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open
Mind Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment
in meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore
peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the
day.


COMMENTARY

When the Course uses the term <Son> in this context, with me addressing God
concerning His Son, the term usually refers to the whole Sonship, which
includes all of my sisters and brothers as well as myself. <Your Son,> in
other words, can be anybody on whom my mind focuses. So when I pray, <Let me
not bind Your Son,> I am referring to my boss, my spouse, my friends, my
family, or whomever I might encounter today. It's a good prayer to repeat
often as we interact with people today.

In our local study group the other night, one woman shared an insight she
had. She said that she had realized that whenever she placed a limit on
anyone else within her mind, if that person already was accepting such a
limit within their own mind, she was reinforcing it. And as well, she was
placing the same limit on herself. We can see this dynamic very strikingly
in a situation involving parents or teachers and young children. It
manifests quite vividly. The child will often manifest the limits that the
adult <sees> in them, whether those limits are real or not. The fact that we
do not see it so plainly with adults, however, does not mean that it is not
happening all the time. When we limit someone in our minds, we can be
literally binding them with laws that we made up.

<Your Son is free, my Father> (1:1). And each person we encounter today is
that Son, equally free. We have all read stories of how the refusal of a
parent, partner, or friend to accept the <normal> limits on someone else has
enabled them to transcend those limits-stories of <impossible> healings, and
so on. These are but elementary demonstrations of the power of today's idea.
The limits the Course has in mind are not so much physical ones, or even
intellectual ones, but limits such as guilt and sin. When we believe a
person is beyond help or beyond hope, we bind them with laws we have made.
We imagine an order of difficulty in miracles and impose it on those around
us. <There is no order of difficulty in miracles> (T 1.I.1:1) is the first
principle of miracles.

    He [whoever he or she may be] is not changed by what is changeable.
(1:4) 

He is still the perfect Son of God, as God created him. He has not been
marred or scarred by anything in this world because everything in this world
is changeable. The Son of God has not been changed by anything that has
happened to his body, which is changeable. A feather cannot scratch a
diamond, not even a pile of feathers, not even an ostrich plume. We are
being asked to remember this about all our brothers; they have not been
changed by what appears to be their sins or mistakes. Nor are they slaves
<to any laws of time> (1:5); this covers our persistent belief that a
healing may take a very long time, for instance. They are subject only to
one law: the law of love (1:6).

Our brothers are not bound by anything except their own beliefs (2:2). And
what they really are is <far beyond [their] faith in slavery or freedom>
(2:3). Their bound appearance is a flimsy thing, barely covering the solid
reality of holiness and love that lies beneath it. They cannot be bound
<unless God's truth can lie, and God can will that He deceive Himself>
(2:5). What kind of God would that be?

What if, today, I looked upon everyone around me from this frame of
reference? What miracles might happen? What chains might fall away? What
blind person might see again? What long-standing wound of the heart might be
healed? Exactly that is our function here as workers of miracles.

WHAT IS THE CHRIST?

Part 7: W-pII.6.4:1

>From within our innermost being, from the Christ in us, the Holy Spirit
reaches forth <to all your dreams, and bids them come to Him, to be
translated into truth> (4:1). Let me not, therefore, hide any of my dreams
from Him today. Let me not let a sense of shame keep me from bringing them
to Him. He will not condemn me. He is not shocked by anything He sees in us;
He is unshockable. On the contrary, <He loves what He sees within you>
(T-13.V.9:6), for He sees past the illusion of sin to the reality of love it
has been hiding.

In every thought of attack He sees our call for love. In every shudder of
fear He hears a call for help. In all our lust for the things of this world
He beholds our longing for completion. Whatever we bring to Him, He
translates into truth. Nothing is beyond redemption, nothing is outside the
reach of the Atonement. The task of the Holy Spirit is to <reinterpret [us]
on behalf of God> (T-5.III.7:7). All that we bring to Him, he will translate
into truth. But only if we bring it. If we hide it He cannot help us.

     Bring, therefore, all your dark and secret thoughts to Him, 
	and look upon them with Him.	(T-14.VII.6:8)
     Open every door to Him, and bid Him enter the darkness and lighten 
	it away. (T-14.VII.6:2; the whole paragraph should be read)

 




From sue at circleofa.org  Sun Oct  4 07:39:40 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 2009 07:39:40 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 278 - October 5
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAANuwTdna2f5IkN7xN6I/LLYBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>




LESSON 278 - OCTOBER 5

If I am bound, my Father is not free.

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

See complete Part II practice instructions in separate document. 
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open
Mind Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment
in meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore
peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the
day.

COMMENTARY

The Course often sets forth a set of what, for us, seem to be rather
confusing interrelationships. It says that how I treat my brother is a
reflection of how I treat myself. It says how I treat myself is a reflection
of how I treat God. It says how I treat my brother is a reflection of how I
treat God. For all three you could substitute the phrase <how I see> for
<how I treat.>

This set of connections seems confusing to us only because we persist in
conceiving of our Self, our brother, and God as separate beings. We are not
separate. It is not simply that how I see myself reflects how I see God; it
is how I see God, because I am part of God, an extension of Him, an
extrusion of His nature. God is all that is. There is no other.

Therefore:

         If I accept that I am prisoner within a body, in a world 
         in which all things that seem to live appear to die, then 
         is my Father prisoner with me. And this do I believe.	(1:1-2) 

The Course is constantly telling me that I believe things I don't think I
believe. It says I believe I have crucified God's Son (T-13.II.5:1). And
here it tells me that I believe God is a prisoner.

I certainly don't go around saying that God is a prisoner. The idea that God
is a prisoner seems shocking to me; my mental concept of God is that He is
omnipotent. How can I believe something without being aware I believe it?
Actually it is quite easy; I do it all the time. And sometimes I've even
caught myself doing it.

For instance, sometimes I have noticed that when another person approaches
me in a very open and loving way, my first reaction is not welcome but
suspicion. I think that behind the appearance of love there is probably some
ulterior motive, something that I need to be on guard against. <What does
this person want from me?> might be my thought. Or perhaps I suspect them of
trying to manipulate me in some way. What that kind of response is
indicating is that I believe love itself is suspect. I don't trust love. I
don't trust my own, I don't trust the love of others, and above all, I don't
trust God's Love.

Another way I see that same suspicion of love in myself is when I feel
loving feelings for another person. <I suspect my own motives>, particularly
if the person is an attractive female. Again, there is the underlying
belief, a belief I have not consciously admitted to myself, <that love
cannot be trusted>.

What this lesson is saying is that when I accept <myself> as a prisoner, I
am betraying a hidden belief that <God> is a prisoner, too. This is so
because the facts of reality are that God and I are one, part of the same
Being, or rather, I am part of His Being. Since reality is one, what I
believe about any part I am believing about the whole, whether or not I
realize it. 

If I am bound in any way, I do not know my Father nor my Self. And I am lost
to all reality.	(1:3-4)

We could easily use this line to condemn ourselves and get into a guilt
trip. There isn't one of us who doesn't see himself or herself as bound in
some way. We <all> feel we are limited by the laws of the world-laws of
nutrition, laws of finance, laws of health, laws of marriage. We <all>
believe that we will die. We all believe that certain of our weaknesses are
real and can't be overcome; if we did not believe that we would have already
overcome them! We all believe that we are limited by time and space; for
instance, that if a friend moves a thousand miles away we can no longer
relate to them as closely as we have before. So am I then <lost to reality>?
Is my situation hopeless?

No, it isn't hopeless. All we need to do is recognize these beliefs in
ourselves and admit that we <do> hold them. We need to see that every belief
in our own limits is a belief that God is limited; every belief that I am
imprisoned or trapped in some way is a belief that God is imprisoned and
trapped. Notice what we are doing. Acknowledge we are doing it. And simply
tell God, for instance, <I'm seeing You as limited and blocked, and You are
not limited and blocked. Help me to see that.> And that is all.

          <Father, I ask for nothing but the truth. I have had 
          many foolish thoughts about myself and my creation, 
          and have brought a dream of fear into my mind. 
          Today, I would not dream. I choose the way to You 
          instead of madness and instead of fear. For truth is 
          safe, and only love is sure.	(2:1-5)

That is all. Acknowledge that you have had <foolish thoughts> (not <sinful
thoughts>), and ask for the truth. That's all.

WHAT IS THE CHRIST?

Part 8: W-pII.6.4:2-3

What does the Holy Spirit do with our dreams of sin and guilt when we bring
them to Him, and He translates them into truth? <He will exchange them for
the final dream which God appointed as the end of dreams> (4:2). This is
speaking of what the Course calls <the happy dream,> otherwise known as <the
real world> or <true perception.> He takes our nightmares from us and
translates them into the happy dream. In the happy dream, we are still
dreaming; we are still here in the world, still operating in the realm of
perception. But what we see is something completely different from the
nightmares of a mind made mad with guilt. <The real world is attained simply
by complete forgiveness of the old, the world you see without forgiveness>
(T-17.II.5:1).

This happy dream is appointed by God to be <the end of dreams.> <Forgiveness
is illusion that is answer to the rest> (W-pI.198.2:10). The world ends, the
Course says, through the illusion of forgiveness: <The illusion of
forgiveness, complete, excluding no one, limitless in gentleness, will cover
it, hiding all evil, concealing all sin and ending guilt forever>
(M-14.1:4). Our dark, guilty thoughts, brought to the Holy Spirit, are met
and dispelled with forgiveness, and replaced with the vision of a world of
total innocence.

The <illusion of forgiveness> will end all dreams because it will end
separation:

          For when forgiveness rests upon the world and peace has 
          come to every Son of God, what could there be to keep 
          things separate, for what remains to see except Christ's face?
(4:3)
 
The <face of Christ> does not mean (of course) that we will see a bearded
Semitic man everywhere we look; the phrase is a symbol of the innocence of
God's Son. If forgiveness rests upon the entire world, and every mind has
come to peace, free from guilt, what is there to see except innocence? The
Course has said that the world is a symbol of guilt. When guilt is gone, its
symbol will also vanish. The dream, made by guilt, will end when its cause
has disappeared.

Clearly this is speaking of a final end, <when peace has come to every Son
of God.> It is the goal toward which the Holy Spirit is leading us, the
final consummation, when guilt has been removed from every mind. Each of us
plays our part in this, for as long as there is guilt within my mind, the
end of guilt has not occurred. The whole cannot be complete without all its
parts. Being the Christ is not something we have to attain; we already are
the Christ. But we do need to learn to remove all the blocks of guilt that
are hiding our true Self from us.
          
          The state of guiltlessness is only the condition in which 
          what is not there has been removed from the disordered 
          mind that thought it was. This state, and only this, must 
          you attain, with God beside you.	 (T-14.IV.2:2-3)

Once we have removed <what is not there,> and have attained the state of
guiltlessness, what we are-the Christ-will be revealed. 
 





From sue at circleofa.org  Mon Oct  5 06:22:35 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 2009 06:22:35 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 279 - October 6
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAAKzlsYVY5qVIiIfP2Ab+xDgBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



LESSON 279 - OCTOBER 6

Creation's freedom promises my own.

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

See complete Part II practice instructions in separate document. 
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open
Mind Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment
in meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore
peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the
day.

COMMENTARY

Because creation is free, I am free. Because no one is bound, I am not
bound. <Now is freedom his already> (1:4). It is here and now. Freedom is
not future.

As I recognize the freedom that belongs to everyone, I find my own. In
giving, I receive. In loving, I am loved. In healing, I am healed. In
recognizing the existence of absolute perfection I experience my
participation in that perfection, and I am most aware of it when I am
recognizing Christ in my brothers.

Yesterday's lesson was the inverse of this: <If I am bound, my Father is not
free.> When we accept the apparent prison we are in we are saying God is
imprisoned. If I see no way out, then God must be stymied too. Here again it
becomes plain that:

          As I see my brother, so I see myself. 
          As I see myself, so I see God.

The simplicity of this lesson is staggering. Everything keeps coming back to
this.

Why do some people fear God? Why does the concept, the very word, scare them
away? It is because they see God in their own image; we always do. If I see
myself as threatening, I see God that way. If I see myself as weak and
ineffective, I see God that way. I am running from my own idols, not from
the truth.
          
          Only in dreams is there a time when he appears 
          to be in prison, and awaits a future freedom, if it be at all.
(1:2) 

We can understand how we can be perfectly free, safe at home in bed, and in
our sleep, dream of imprisonment. That exactly describes our experience in
this world. We are already free, but dreaming we are imprisoned. Salvation,
to the Course, is simply becoming aware that we are dreaming, and that the
freedom we think we lack is already ours. We become aware of it through
recognizing it in others.

What are we seemingly imprisoned by? Of what do our chains consist? Are they
not chains of guilt? <The Holy Spirit knows that all salvation is escape
from guilt> (T-14.III.13:4). To see my brother as free is to see him without
guilt; in other words, forgiveness. That is how escape from guilt happens:
when I realize that creation itself is free from guilt, that everyone is
guiltless, I recognize that I must be included. It works this way because
what I perceive as the world is a projection of my own self-judgment: <The
world you see is but a judgment on yourself> (T-20.III.5:2). In lifting
judgment and guilt from the world I am lifting it from myself because what I
see is only a reflection of how I see myself.

          Creation's freedom promises my own.

WHAT IS THE CHRIST?

Part 9: W-pII.6.5:1-2

When we see <this holy face> (5:1), the face of Christ, in everyone and
everywhere, we are seeing all creation as completely innocent, free from
guilt. This <true perception> will not last long, according to the Course,
because it is merely <the symbol that the time for learning now is over, and
the goal of the Atonement has been reached at last> (5:1). The face of
Christ symbolizes the end of the time for learning because what we are
learning is that we are without guilt, and that God's creation, His Son, is
without guilt. So when we see only the face of Christ, learning has achieved
its objective. It's graduation time!

If we believe we have a purpose in this world at all, we tend to think of it
as some great thing within time. We think, as a Southern Baptist friend of
mine used to say, that we are here to <do great wonders and eat cucumbers.>
(I never did figure out exactly what he meant by the last part, but it makes
the silliness of our other goals apparent.) But our only function here, the
Course tells us, is to learn forgiveness. We are not here to fix the world
but to forgive it. We are not here to become a great, world-renowned healer.
We are not here to establish a great spiritual teaching center. Our goal and
our function is not defined in terms of this world at all. <Your only
calling here is to devote yourself, with active willingness, to the denial
of guilt in all its forms> (T-14.V.3:5). That is the sole objective of our
learning. In the symbolism given here, it is to see the face of Christ.

     So therefore let us seek to find Christ's face and look on nothing
else.	(5:2) 

In all our seeking, seek only this. If I am starting a new job, what is my
purpose? To seek Christ's face, to deny guilt in all its forms. If I am
entering a new relationship, what is my purpose? To seek Christ's face; to
escape from guilt by seeing no guilt in my brother. If I am beginning some
new project under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, what is it for? To seek
Christ's face, to remove guilt from every mind I encounter. This is my sole
purpose in anything that I do. And only in accepting this as <the one
function that I would fulfill> (T-20.IV.8:4) will I find my happiness.





From sue at circleofa.org  Tue Oct  6 05:14:37 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2009 05:14:37 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 280 - October 7
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAAF9bQ0JAL0FGqQ9X+MFkJjgBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>




Lesson 280 - October 7

"WHAT LIMITS CAN I LAY UPON GOD'S SON?"

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

See complete Part II practice instructions in separate document. 
A short summary:

* READ the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* PRAY the prayer, perhaps several times.

* MORNING AND EVENING: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* HOURLY REMEMBRANCE: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* FREQUENT REMINDERS: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* RESPONSE TO TEMPTATION: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* READ THE "WHAT IS" SECTION slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

Practice suggestion: Think of someone in your life, and apply these lines to
that person:

<Being a Thought of God, [name] has not left his Father's Mind.

Being a Thought of God, [name] is not limited at all.

Being a Thought of God, [name] is forever pure.

Being God's Son, what limits can I lay upon him>?

COMMENTARY

The Course is calling on me to not deny to anyone--my brothers or
myself--the limitless freedom in which God created us. I find in myself what
seems like a natural tendency to compare myself to others, and to find
myself, in some way, superior to them. I am more intelligent. My opinions
are more correct. Or my relationships are superior. Or I am more ethical,
more compassionate, more understanding, more honest with myself. I have
greater integrity. All of these are ways in which I have, at times, felt
superior to others. Others have other standards of comparison. But in
general, I think, we all have this tendency to feel somehow superior to most
of the rest of the human race.

This is what the Course calls specialness. It is a way of seeing others with
limits that, we believe, do not exist for ourselves. The Course's call to
see our brothers as equally free as ourselves contradicts this pattern of
thinking we have taught ourselves. The lesson says, "I can invent
imprisonment for him [he whom God created free], but only in illusions, not
in truth" (1:2). We are all equal Thoughts of God; none of us has left the
Father's Mind; none of us is limited at all--except in illusions.

As students of <A Course in Miracles> we are called to "give honor" (2:1) to
the Son of God wherever we meet Him. We are called to recognize the Christ
in every one who is sent to meet us. Let me recognize today that the limits
I see are my own illusions; they are, in fact, my own belief in my own
limits, dressed up, disguised, perhaps, in another form, and projected onto
my brother. I find my own freedom by honoring it in others. Let me remind
myself today, "This is the holy Son of God, my brother, a part of my Self."
Only in so doing will I find my Self, and recognize the Christ as God
created Him.

At one point the Course makes a very strong statement. It says that if I
really recognized who my brother or sister is, I could "scarce refrain from
kneeling at his feet" (W-pI.161.9:3). Yet, it goes on to say that I will
take his hand instead, because in the kind of sight that sees my brother or
sister in this way, I am equally glorious. We are the Christ. Who we are is
magnificent, so far beyond our normal conception of ourselves that on seeing
it our inclination would be to worship, except that in that same instant we
recognize that same magnificence in ourselves. May God grant us all such
vision!

WHAT IS THE CHRIST?

PART 10: W-PII.6.5:3

This sentence speaks of the vision of God's Son, the awareness of the
"glory" of what we truly are. In seeking and seeing Christ's face in one
another, we find that same glory in ourselves. In the recognition of our
true nature as God's creation, all need of "learning or perception or of
time" ceases. The removal of the veils of guilt, accomplished by
forgiveness, reveals the Christ to us, and there is no longer need of
anything "except the holy Self, the Christ Who God created as His Son."

We already are what we are looking for. Only our dreams of guilt have hidden
it from our sight. What is the Christ? You are. I am. Learning to undo the
blocks to this sight is our only purpose in time. When that has been
accomplished, there is nothing left to do except to <be> what we always have
been.






From sue at circleofa.org  Wed Oct  7 06:14:03 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 2009 06:14:03 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 281 - October 8
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAABTheiq0lbBLlUn2laTZ+MYBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>




Lesson 281 - October 8

"I CAN BE HURT BY NOTHING BUT MY THOUGHTS."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

See complete Part II practice instructions in separate document. 
A short summary:

* READ the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* PRAY the prayer, perhaps several times.

* MORNING AND EVENING: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* HOURLY REMEMBRANCE: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* FREQUENT REMINDERS: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* RESPONSE TO TEMPTATION: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* READ THE "WHAT IS" SECTION slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

Practice suggestion: Think of something that seems to be hurting you, and
say:

<This outer thing cannot hurt me.

Only my thoughts about it hurt me.

Let me see it through God's Thoughts, for they can only bring me happiness>.

COMMENTARY

If I am perfect I cannot be hurt; it would make me less than perfect. Our
reasoning tells us our life would be perfect if it were free from pain, but
we are not free from pain, and therefore we must not be perfect. The
Course's reason works in the opposite direction: we are perfect; pain would
mean imperfection; therefore the pain must be some kind of illusion. "When I
think that I am hurt in any way, it is because I have forgotten who I am,
and that I am as You created me" (1:2). In other words, we only <think> we
are hurt. If we remembered who we really are, we could not be hurt.

Another way of thinking about this is to say that my true Self cannot be
hurt; only my illusory self can be hurt, and that, only by my own thoughts.
Granted, we make some pretty darn good illusions! But that is all they are:
illusions.

Pain comes when we put our own thoughts in place of the Thought of God
(1:4). The cause is always in my thinking and nowhere else; nothing outside
my mind can hurt me. When I feel attacked, it is always me attacking me. Not
even the unloving thoughts of my brothers can hurt me if my mind is thinking
God's Thoughts with Him. Early in the Text we are told:

In reality you are perfectly unaffected by all expressions of lack of love.
These can be from yourself and others, from yourself to others, or from
others to you. Peace is an attribute <in> you. You cannot find it outside.
(T-2.I.5:6-9)

What I am in truth is "far beyond all pain" (2:2). The Holy Spirit is our
Teacher to help us remember that this is who we are. As Lesson 248 tells us:

Whatever suffers is not part of me. What grieves is not myself. What is in
pain is but illusion in my mind. (W-pII.248.1:3-5)

Not only is pain an illusion; the illusion of pain is experienced by an
illusion of myself. It is my thoughts, specifically my thoughts about
myself, that cause this illusion. When I think I am what God created not, I
experience pain.

Let the words "I will not hurt myself today" be much in my mind today, my
Father.

WHAT IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?

PART 1: W-PII.7.1:1-2

"The Holy Spirit mediates between illusions and the truth" (1:1). He bridges
"the gap between reality and dreams" (1:2). Illusions and truth are mutually
exclusive; reality and dreams can never meet. Our minds are caught in
illusions, and in order to restore them to truth, something or Someone is
needed who can act as a bridge, somehow connecting the unconnectable. This
is the purpose served by the Holy Spirit. He bridges the gap because He is
able to operate in both arenas; He touches on illusion without losing
contact with the truth. He is the One Who "mediates," bringing illusion back
to truth.

Because He is what He is, "those who turn to Him for truth" (1:2) can be led
to truth by means of the very perception which is part of their illusion.
Without Him, perception would lead only to more perception, the illusion
continually reinforcing itself. Because the Holy Spirit, Who is within us
and part of our minds (as well as part of God's), is linked eternally to
truth, He can guide our perception in such a way as to undo our illusions
and restore us to knowledge. This ability is "the grace that God has given
Him" (1:2).

Our part in the equation, then, is simply to "turn to Him for truth." We
bring our perceptions to Him, and He translates them into true perception,
which leads straight to knowledge. He plays a very clear and crucial role in
the Course's prescription for healing our minds. If He were not there,
within us, there would be no bridge between reality and illusion. The more
actively we cooperate with Him, consciously and willingly bringing our
perceptions to Him, asking for the truth instead of our illusions, the more
He can help us.

The word "turn" is an interesting one. It is a mental turning, a mental
change of direction that can be almost physically felt when it occurs.
Sometimes it feels as though we must literally tear our minds away from
their focus on fear, and impel our thoughts towards the light like a flower
turning to the sun. When I am distraught, I have found great power in simply
closing my eyes and saying, "I turn to You." Almost at once, if these words
are heartfelt, there comes a great sense of peace, a great widening of the
horizons of my mind. I sense the Presence of infinite Help and Wisdom,
waiting to assist. I feel the nearness of the Great Mediator, filled with
the grace God has given Him, ready to purify my perception and lead me
towards the truth. May we learn, more and more often, to turn to Him for
truth. 





From sue at circleofa.org  Thu Oct  8 06:10:00 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 2009 06:10:00 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 282 - October 9
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAAJIafWfteP5HhURjvP4PUE8BAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>




LESSON 282 - OCTOBER 9

"I will not be afraid of love today."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

See complete Part II practice instructions in separate document. A short
summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

Practice suggestion: Lesson 282 says, in essence, that our true Name is
love, as is God's. We have given ourselves the name of fear, but this is
simply a mistake-we have not become fear. We are still love.

           First, sign your name as you usually do, on the line below 
           (or grab an extra piece of paper for this), and date it:
           Signed, _____________________________
           (Dated: _____________)

Look at your signature, and try to get in touch with your sense of whose
name that is. What concept of that person are you holding as you sign the
signature? Is it not a separate person? A person with a particular history?
And a special station or place in the world? With special attributes? 

Isn't this self trying to make its way through a perilous world? Isn't that
why you sign your name to things? To protect yourself from something? Or to
procure some needed thing for this endangered self? If, for instance, you
sign a legal document, are you not often afraid of what it may bring into
your life, even while you are hoping it will protect you in other ways? In
short, isn't the identity signified by your name filled with fear? What else
would a separate self trying to make its way through a perilous world be
filled with?

           Therefore, sign your name again, and this time sign it simply as
"Fear."
           Signed, _____________________________
           (Dated: _____________)

Once you sign it, try to see this signature and the first one as the same.
Look back and forth between the first and second signatures and try to let
them blend into one. Try to realize that when you sign your name in everyday
life, you are signing "Fear." You are saying, "This self who is separate,
vulnerable, and beset by the dangers of a perilous world." Regardless of the
specific words you write, the content of what you are writing is fear.

           Now sign your name one more time. This time sign it as "Love."
           Signed, ____________________________
           (Dated: ______________)

As you sign it, try to really mean it. Don't think of it as a given name
like "Joy," which doesn't mean much. Think of it as a statement that you
really are love. Love is your nature. You are not a being who can love, who
can love at times and hate at other times, whose love is partial, selective,
and intermittent. You are love. Love is your nature. You are a segment of
Love Itself. In your true nature, you are incapable of any anger, any
hatred, even any neutrality. Being love, all you can do is love. 

Realize that this is not an aspiration of what you want to be. This is who
you are now, beneath all appearances. You are love, a segment of God's Love,
merely dreaming that you are a separate being filled with fear. You are love
masquerading as something else.

Look at this final signature and try to identify with it. Think to yourself,
"That's me. That's who I am." Does that make you see yourself differently?
What feelings does it evoke?

COMMENTARY

Here is another of the dozens of statements which the Course says, if
accepted without reservation, can constitute the entirety of salvation. "If
I could realize but this today, salvation would be reached for all the
world" (1:1). A few of the others that fall into this category are "I am as
God created me" (W-pI.94.1), "Ideas leave not their source"
(W-pI.167.3:6-11), "There is no world" (W-pI.132.6:2-3), "Nothing real can
be threatened. Nothing unreal exists" (T-In.2:2-3), and "Forgive the world,
and you will understand that everything that God created cannot have an end,
and nothing He did not create is real" (M-20.5:7-10).

How often do I realize that I am afraid of love? We are afraid of love far
more frequently than we realize. Ken Wapnick has used a variation of this
thought as a suggested mental response whenever we notice our egos acting
up: "I must be afraid of love again." There is a sense in which we could say
that the ego is the fear of love. It is a mental stance that rejects Love as
our Source, that rejects Love as our Self, and that refuses to recognize
Love in everyone and everything around us. When we look at it in this way,
it begins to be more understandable that if we could simply realize this one
thing-not to be afraid of love-the salvation of the world would be
accomplished.

Fear of love is insane on the face of it. Of all the things we might be
reasonably afraid of, love is not one of them. A famous old-time Christian
evangelist, Charles Grandison Finney (famous in the 1800s), once wrote that
"Love is the eternal will to all goodness." To be afraid of that which
eternally wills only our good is truly insane. So to accept today's idea is
"the decision not to be insane" (1:2).

Fear of love is a fear of our own Self, which is Love. Therefore, to realize
today's idea is "to accept myself as God Himself, my Father and my Source,
created me" (1:2). We are indeed afraid to recognize ourselves as Love; it
seems a very dangerous thing to do, to our egos.

Fear of love is to fall asleep and dream of death, because in rejecting love
we are rejecting that which guards us, protects us, and brings us joy. In
fearing love we are imagining ourselves to be something other than loving,
or in other words, evil and sinful. In such a picture of ourselves we
imagine we deserve death. To forget what we are and to believe we are
something else, the mind must fall asleep. Therefore, to realize today's
idea is a determination not to be asleep in dreams of death (1:3).

To will not to be afraid of love is a choice to recognize my Self because my
Self is Love.

No matter what names we may have called ourselves in our madness, names
cannot change what we are in truth (2:1-3). To choose not to fear love is to
remember this. What we have done in calling ourselves unloving is not a sin:


           The name of fear is simply a mistake. 
           Let me not be afraid of truth today.	(2:4-5)

WHAT IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?

Part 2: W-pII.7.1:3-5

The Holy Spirit is the Mediator or bridge between illusion and truth, dreams
and reality, perception and knowledge. He becomes the means by which we can
carry all of our dreams to the truth "to be dispelled before the light of
knowledge" (1:3). His purpose within our minds is to effect this
transformation of our mistaken perception into true perception. Our only
task is to bring Him everything we do not want, so that He can dispel it.
The Course refers to its curriculum as an organized, well-structured and
carefully planned program aimed at learning how to offer the Holy Spirit
everything you do not want. He knows what to do with it. You do not
understand how to use what He knows. Whatever is given Him that is not of
God is gone.	(T-12:II.10:1-4)

Across the bridge, in the light of knowledge, "sights and sounds" are
"forever laid aside" (1:4). "Sights and sounds" represent the whole realm of
perception. We bring our perceptions to the Holy Spirit to be "cleansed and
purified, and finally removed forever" (T-18.IX.14:2). The Holy Spirit's
purpose is to perform this task; He is the Mediator between perception and
knowledge (see W-pI.43.1:3):

           Without this link with God, perception would have
           replaced knowledge forever in your mind. With this 
           link with God, perception will become so changed 
           and purified that it will lead to knowledge.	(W-pI.43.1:4-5)

This transformation of perception is identical to forgiveness; it is
forgiveness that "has made possible perception's tranquil end" (1:5).
"Forgiveness, salvation, Atonement, true perception, all are one" (C 4.3:6).
Perception as managed by the ego always sees sin, and manifests in judgment
and attack. Perception as managed by the Holy Spirit always sees the face of
Christ, and manifests in love and joining. The ego's perception sees
differences; the Holy Spirit's perception sees sameness and identity. 

          This is the shift that true perception brings: 
        What was projected out is seen within, and
        there forgiveness lets it disappear.	(C-4.6:1)

The Holy Spirit is, therefore, central to the process of forgiveness. He is
the means by which the transformation of perception from false to true is
possible, and without Him, we would forever be lost in our dream of
judgment. With Him, we can learn to forgive.
 




From sue at circleofa.org  Fri Oct  9 06:03:28 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 2009 06:03:28 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] LESSON 283 - OCTOBER 10
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAAEAPvIrfJcNOmzpmfEcxJvcBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>




LESSON 283 - OCTOBER 10

"My true Identity abides in You."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS 

See complete Part II practice instructions in separate document. 
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

COMMENTARY

"Abides" means "lives or dwells," but it also means "remains unchanged." I
think that is the sense it has in this lesson: "My true Identity remains
unchanged in You." (At least that is how I'm hearing it today.) "I made an
image of myself" (1:1). I made a false picture of what I am, an idol, and I
have imagined that this image is what I am: "it is this I call the Son of
God" (1:1). This is the Course's understanding of what has, traditionally,
been called "the Fall." In traditional Judeo-Christian understanding, man
was created innocent and sinless, but he fell into sin, and thus corrupted
his nature forever ("original sin"). In the Course's understanding, all that
really happened is that we imagined we had changed; we made a false picture
of ourselves and thought, "This is me." But what we really are never changed
at all! Our true Identity remains unchanged, despite our making of idols.
Creation is still, now, as it always was, because God's creation cannot be
changed (1:2).

There is a vast difference between having actually corrupted our nature and
only <thinking> that we did. In the old view, we had a real problem,
resolvable only by the supernatural intervention of God. Real sin had been
done, and had to be met with real punishment. Sin against an infinite God
required a payment equally infinite, and so God's infinite Son had to die in
our place, and then a "new nature" had to be created by God and somehow
injected into humanity (being "born again"). Those who did not receive this
new life were doomed to hell.

In the view presented by the Course, no real sin has been done, and the
original perfection of God's creation remains unchanged. All that is
necessary is for us to recognize our mistaken self-identification and to
change our minds about it. When we let go of the idols or false images ("Let
me not worship idols" [1:3]), the nature of Christ within us is uncovered
and revealed as untouched by our insanity.

I am still the one my Father loves; that has not changed (1:4). My holiness
still "remains the light of Heaven and the Love of God" (1:5). How could
what God created as the light of Heaven be destroyed and become darkness?
(1:6-7). If God created everything that is, how could I possibly be
something else? (1:8). There is nothing else for me to be.

Each time today I find myself judging something about myself, disliking
myself, berating myself, or feeling guilty about what and who I am, let me
remind myself that none of what I am seeing is my true Identity. My true
Identity remains in God and part of Him. The seeming other identity is an
idol; let me not worship it, bow down to it and attribute some great power
to it or fear it. This is not who I am. Let me be still an instant and go
home.

As I recognize this true Identity, I must realize that by the nature of what
It is, It must be shared with all creation. Everything is part of me, and I
of it, all coming from the same Source (2:1). When I recognize everything as
part of this shared Identity, other aspects of my one Self, I will naturally
"offer blessing to all things, uniting lovingly with all the world" (2:2).

WHAT IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?

Part 3: W-pII.7.2:1-2

The ending of our dreams is the goal of the Holy Spirit's teaching (2:1).
The dreams (our current perception), as we have seen, are brought to an end
by translating our false perception of fear into the perception of love. The
learning process we are engaged in here, and the subject of the Course's
curriculum, is this very transformation of perception that will lead, in its
final outcome, to the end of all perception-the end of dreams. Sometimes we
get over-anxious, and we want the dream to end now. We want a direct
infusion of knowledge. But that is not possible; we can't skip the process
of transforming our perceptions.

We have been emphasizing perception, and have said very little about
knowledge as yet. This is because perception must be straightened out before
you can know anything.	(T-3.III.1.1-2)

Before we can "know" anything, our perceptions must be transformed by our
interaction with the Holy Spirit, by our bringing our darkness to Him so
that He can dispel it with the light. "For sights and sounds [perception]
must be translated from the witnesses of fear to those of love" (2:2). There
are so many things in our lives that seem to be witnesses to fear. They
"testify" to the reality of fear; they seem to justify fear and even to
demand fear. The translation that the Holy Spirit is seeking to effect
within our minds is to so change our perception of things that everything
(literally everything) that now seems to justify and demand fear becomes
instead, in our transformed perception, something that justifies and demands
love.

That is what "forgiveness" means in the Course; it is far more than merely
seeing someone's actions differently. It means seeing everything
differently. It means looking at every horror in this world, every atrocity,
every betrayal, every bit of sickness and death, and somehow seeing all of
it as something that justifies love and demands love. Something that,
instead of proving the reality of fear, proves the reality of love. And
that, folks, takes a miracle! But this is "a course in miracles." That is
exactly what it is all about.

How can our perception of things be changed so radically? We do not know. We
do not <need> to know. That is the job of the Holy Spirit within our minds.
He knows how to do it. All we need to do is bring our fearful perceptions to
Him with willingness to have them replaced by His perception. If we will
bring them, and if we are thus willing to have them taken from us and
replaced, He knows exactly how to do that, and He will do it. He <already>
sees everything we see as a justification for love. He already sees
everything in you and me as justifying His love. He sees it that way <for>
us until we learn to share His perception with Him. "He was created to see
this for you, until you learned to see it for yourself" (T-17.II.1:8). This
is what the Holy Spirit is; this is what He does.		

 



From sue at circleofa.org  Sun Oct 11 10:55:21 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2009 10:55:21 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 284 - October 11
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAANTuoDxcZZBKl5VDPdgJDO0BAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



LESSON 284 - OCTOBER 11

"I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS 

See complete Part II practice instructions in separate document.  
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

Practice suggestion: When you repeat today's lesson, you may want to make it
more specific: "I can elect to change this thought about __________."

COMMENTARY

This is one of the very good capsule statements of the practical teaching of
the Course. What is seen as outside must be seen, first, as originating
inside, in my thoughts. Then this lesson applies. If the origin of the
problem is my thoughts, I can affect the problem. I can change all thoughts
that hurt. Nothing outside me can affect me. The cause of problems, and
therefore the solution to them, is entirely within my mind and entirely
within my control.

"Loss is not loss when properly perceived" (1:1). Wham! Zap! That really
hits a lot of buttons. Perhaps recently there was something I wanted to do,
or someplace I wanted to go, and I could not do it. I could perceive that as
a loss, and be upset. Yet, properly perceived, that loss can be seen as not
a loss at all. The perception of an event, any event, as a loss is purely
within my mind; the "hurt" comes not from the external event but from my
thoughts about it, and "I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt."

But we have a mental scale of lesser and greater losses, and as we go up our
scale this gets harder and harder to accept. Not getting to a meeting or a
concert is one thing. But a few years ago I lost my computer hard disk,
totally. I lost several years of personal journals and a mailing list with
hundreds of names on it, no backups, no way to retrieve them. Gone. It took
me a long time to work through to not seeing that as a loss. But the
principle is the same. The perception of loss was purely in my mind, and all
perception of loss and pain is always there and nowhere else. And it is
always possible for me to change those thoughts if I really want to.

Up the scale still further: What about when someone we love dies, especially
unexpectedly, "tragically," from sickness or violence or accident? How is it
possible to apply "Loss is not loss when properly perceived" to such an
event? It is evident the lesson means for us to do just that, because it
continues: 

         Pain is impossible. There is no grief with any cause at all. 
         And suffering of any kind is nothing but a dream.	(1:2-4)

The lesson is saying that, properly perceived, even death is not a cause for
grief. All of it is just a more extreme form of the same case; the cause for
our hurt, our pain, and our grief is not external to us. It is in the way we
are thinking about things. And we can change the way we think about them and
eliminate the pain. The major issue of life is not in the externals; it is
in our thinking.

You would not go up to someone who had just lost a loved one and say,
bluntly, "There is no cause for grief here." It very likely would be
perceived as cruel and cold, as if you were saying, "He's no loss. Look at
the bright side; now you won't have to put up with his/her faults any more,
and you can find another who will make you really happy." People who try to
tell a grieving person, "There is no cause for grief" are often choosing to
be "spiritually correct" at the expense of kindness.

I think, however, that the lesson is asking us to say something like
that-that there is no cause for grief-to <ourselves>, even in cases of what
seems like extreme loss. It is suggesting, in the lines that follow, a
process we can follow to change our thoughts even in such seemingly
impossible cases [see the essay after this commentary for more on the
process]. It is not an instant process, and it may take considerable time to
turn the tide of our thoughts. But it is possible, it is within our power to
change all thoughts that hurt. Our aim should be, eventually, to see that
"grief and pain must be impossible" (2:1). Why? Because our Father would not
give us anything that hurts us, and there is no other Source. He gives only
the joyous, so only the joyous is the truth (2:2).

WHAT IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?

Part 4: W-pII.7.2:3-4

The process of translating our perceptions being discussed here is exactly
the same as the process of changing our thoughts described in Lesson 284: "I
can elect to change all thoughts that hurt." "Sights and sounds must be
translated from the witnesses of fear to those of love" (2:2). This process
of "changing thoughts that hurt" is all that learning is for, and when it
has been accomplished, the game is over (2:3). This is the goal, the end of
all spiritual process.

Lesson 193 put it well:

How can you tell when you are seeing wrong, or someone else is failing to
perceive the lesson he should learn? Does pain seem real in the perception?
If it does, be sure the lesson is not learned.	(W-pI.193.7:1-3)

A perception of pain is an unforgiveness. It indicates a need for a shift in
perception. It is not sinful or bad to feel pain or grief; it is simply a
mistaken perception that needs to be corrected. Nor is there shame if we
find it hard to make such a shift. This is what the Holy Spirit is for, to
help us through this process of translating our thoughts and changing our
perceptions. This is what life is all about; this is the only lesson in the
classroom. We do it through frequent repetition of the truth, and through
persistently bringing our perceptions of pain to Him for healing. The
complete absence of such perceptions comes only at the end of the entire
process. The Manual puts it well: "It is your function to escape from them
[perceptions of pain, for example], but not to be without them" (M-26.4:2).
It is our own personal experience with pain and grief, and our experience of
escape from them, that enables us to be of help to others who are caught in
their grasp.

Learning from the Holy Spirit, then, involves openly acknowledging our false
perceptions and not being guilty about them, but simply bringing them to Him
for healing. This kind of learning "becomes the means to go beyond itself,
to be replaced by the eternal truth" (2:4). If we gripe and complain about
the learning process we will only delay the desired outcome. We are not
expected to be without experiences of pain and grief, nor should we expect
to be without them. But we should engage ourselves in the work of escaping
from them when they occur, bringing them to the gentle kindness of the Holy
Spirit's presence, asking Him to translate our perceptions so that what we
see as witnesses to fear become, instead, witnesses to love.






From sue at circleofa.org  Sun Oct 11 10:56:13 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2009 10:56:13 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] LESSON 285 - OCTOBER 12
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAAGAZRb2npGVFrTy6EH4ipWUBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



LESSON 285 - OCTOBER 12

"My holiness shines bright and clear today."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS 

See complete Part II practice instructions in separate document.  A short
summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

Practice suggestion: In the spirit of the teaching in this lesson's opening
paragraph, try repeating the following:
        I normally wake expecting painful things to come to me.
        They seem to fit me because I think I am unholy.
        Today I wake expecting only happy things.
        They are what really fit me, because I am holy.

COMMENTARY

Today I ask only for joyful things to come my way. "I will ask for only
joyous things the instant I accept my holiness" (1:3). The only reason I
experience pain and grief and suffering and loss is because somewhere in my
mind I think I deserve it. In some way I think suffering is good for me. I
judge myself unholy, in conflict with God and His love, and so I need to be
taught a lesson. I need to be rehabilitated. I think suffering and hardship
will teach me a lesson. So I send forth an invitation to those kind of
thoughts, and by golly they come!

When I accept my holiness, "what would be the use of pain to me?" (1:4). The
idea that suffering is necessary is poppycock. We think we learn through our
trials. And we do. But what we are learning is not how to become holy; we
are learning that we <are> holy. Once we get ahold of that fact, we don't
need suffering any more. Once we get rid of the idea that we are sinful and
guilty, that somehow we need to be whipped into line, we understand that we
deserve joy because we are already holy.

We think that if we were to become totally happy too quickly we'd miss
something. We are absolutely convinced that our past actions prove that we
don't deserve happiness and are not ready for it. We think some critical
element is missing from our personality that only suffering and pain can
teach us. Nothing is missing. Nothing is lacking. If the pain, grief, and
loss all ended this instant, you would be just fine; you'd be perfect, in
fact, because you already are!

It's as if we have a transmitter in our heads. We have a picture of
ourselves as guilty and incomplete. We think suffering is needed to correct
that condition. So we broadcast an invitation to pain, suffering, grief, and
loss: "Come to me! Help me out. I need to suffer some more." Because our
mind has all the creative power of God, we succeed in our attempt. We make
all the suffering happen, at least in appearance.

When we learn to see ourselves as innocent and complete, the perfect
creation of the Father, we have no further reason to broadcast such
thoughts. Instead we sing, "Send joy only! Send happy things of God. Today I
am accepting only the joyous; no suffering allowed." I am the ruler of the
universe (Lesson 253). My mind has complete power to create the experience
of life I want. Today, I choose to create joy.

WHAT IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?

Part 5: W-pII.7.3:1

If you but knew how much your Father yearns to have you recognize your
sinlessness, you would not let His Voice appeal in vain, nor turn away from
His replacement for the fearful images and dreams you made.

This sentence is here because we <are> letting His Voice appeal in vain, not
listening to it, and we <are> turning away from His Thoughts with which He
would replace our terrifying dreams and images. Our own egos, in their
scramble for self-survival, have convinced us that God is doing <anything
but> yearning for us to recognize our sinlessness. We're more likely to
think (if we think about it at all) that God is sitting up in Heaven with
his big book of records carefully tracking all our mistakes and tallying
them up against us. We are afraid that we have really screwed it up and are
too far gone to be recovered. We are more afraid of God than we are
believers in His Love. We cannot imagine that He still sees us as sinless.
But He does.

When something bad seems to happen to us, we still think along the lines of
"Now what did I do to deserve this?" We still think of the world as some
kind of system in which the universe makes us pay dearly for every slip-up.
The Course says over and over that God is not in the vengeance game. We are
the only players in that game, and we bring on our own punishments. God, on
the other hand, is yearning for us to stop thinking we are guilty and to
recognize our sinlessness.

We turn away from the transformation of our thoughts being offered to us
because, somehow, we've convinced ourselves that if we bring any of this
dark and dirty stuff into God's Light, a lightning bolt will come out of
heaven and zap us. We think that hiding it is safer than exposing it. We
don't want to admit that we have gone off searching for idols, for things to
replace God in our lives, because we think that has forever marred us and
made us unacceptable to God. It has not. All God wants is for us to stop
this silly game and come home to Him. He has given us the Holy Spirit to
help us do exactly that, but we avoid turning within to Him because we think
we will lose, or even die, in the process.
Read the Text section on "Justice Returned to Love" (T-25.VIII). It
describes our fear of the Holy Spirit quite clearly. It says that we fear
Him and think He represents God's wrath, rather than God's Love. We become
suspicious when His Voice tries to tell us we have never sinned
(T-25.VIII.6:8). It says we "flee the Holy Spirit as if He were a messenger
from hell, sent from above, in treachery and guile, to work God's vengeance
on [us] in the guise of a deliverer and friend" (T-25.VIII.7:2).

If I look honestly at how often I actually turn to the Holy Spirit for the
healing of my thoughts, as opposed to how often I <do not> do so, it seems
to bear out what is being said here. Something in me is keeping me from
doing this very simple action; something is motivating me to stay away from
the Holy Spirit. If I really knew how much my Father yearns for me to
recognize my sinlessness, I would not behave like this.

So what can I do? I can start where I am. When I realize that I've been
shunning the Holy Spirit again, I can begin by bringing that realization to
Him: "Well, Holy Spirit, it looks as if I've been afraid of You again. Sorry
about that." And that simple turning is exactly what He asks of us; to bring
our darkness to Him for healing. In opening up about my fear, I've neatly
sidestepped it. I'm in communication again.
 





From sue at circleofa.org  Mon Oct 12 06:19:54 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:19:54 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 286 - October 13
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAABqIhm0w/X9AvK9zFZ57pGgBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>




Lesson 286 - October 13

"The hush of Heaven holds my heart today."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS 

See complete Part II practice instructions in separate document.  
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

Practice suggestion: The prayer for this lesson is without doubt one of the
most beautiful prayers in the Course. I call it the "I Need Do Nothing
Prayer." It induces a wonderful state of rest and peace. I recommend taking
a chunk of time today-fifteen to thirty minutes-and praying this prayer over
and over again, slowly and meaningfully, sinking more deeply into it each
time. Don't close your eyes and zone out after the first time; you'll be
grateful for the experience if you stay with it. To aid in this process,
I've broken the prayer into three parts and have put some extra lines after
each line of the prayer, to draw out its meaning.

A Day of Doing Nothing

1. Father, how still today!

          Let me imagine a day of perfect stillness, 
          in which everything is resting, everything is at peace, 
          glowing with a soft radiance.

2. How quietly do all things fall in place! 

          Normally, life seems to be a chaotic jumble of conflicting
elements.
          But today, all things have quietly fallen into their proper place.
          As I look out on the world, everything is exactly where it
belongs.

3. This is the day that has been chosen as the time in which I come to
understand the lesson 
that there is no need that I do anything. 

          This is the day You have appointed for me to finally realize, 
          "I need do nothing."

Rest from Doing

4. In You is every choice already made. 

          This is why I need do nothing.
          In You all those hard choices that face me have already been made.
          Let me feel myself resting in You, no more difficult decisions to
make.

5. In You has every conflict been resolved.

          I feel constantly surrounded by conflict, 
          trying to resolve one while hoping that the others will not spring
out of control.
          But in You, all my conflicts are forever behind me.

6. In You is everything I hope to find already given me. 

          I am always seeking, striving to find the happiness and safety
that I lack.
          But in You, I can rest from seeking, for I have found. In You I
have everything.


The Peace that Is Mine

7. Your peace is mine. 

          You are totally free from choice, conflict, and seeking.
          Your peace must be limitless, unfathomable! 
          Yet because I am in You, Your peace is mine.

8. My heart is quiet, and my mind at rest. 
          In Your peace, with no need to do anything, 
          I am totally at rest, completely filled.

9. Your Love is Heaven, and Your Love is mine. 
          What could be more heavenly than being loved by You?
          And I am loved by You; You love me with all that You are.
          I need only accept Your Love, and Heaven is mine.

COMMENTARY

"How quietly do all things fall in place!" (1:2). I love that line! That is
what realization is like; things just quietly fall into place, and there is
nothing to do.

"This is the day that has been chosen as the time in which I come to
understand the lesson that there is no need that I do anything" (1:3).

Several years ago in a study group, we read a section that described the
state of <knowledge>. Someone asked if it is possible for an individual to
attain this, or do we all have to do it together? "Is everybody waiting for
me? Am I waiting for everybody else?" The leader (I'll call him Ted) began
to discuss Jesus and how we are all in this together.

"Then Jesus isn't in this state of knowledge yet either, is he?" said the
questioner.
I injected myself into the discussion: "Yes, he is. Jesus has passed from
perception to knowledge. <And so have you.">

We are "at home in God, dreaming of exile" (T-10.I.2:1). We are all already
in Heaven. (Actually we never left.) The story is already over! We're at the
end, looking back and remembering. "We're living a rerun," someone said.
"The fact that Jesus has already done it is the guarantee that we all will
do it, we all will experience what he has experienced because we are really
all one mind," Ted said.

This is the reason that "I need do nothing." We all continue to make the
error that we have to accomplish something. We think that there is this
great mountain to climb, the mountain of enlightenment or perfection. We may
believe Jesus has climbed it, along with others like Buddha, but we think
we're still at the bottom looking up. We are intimidated by how hard it is
going to be, awed by all the work that has to be done, discouraged by the
thought of how far we have to go to get there.

These thoughts are simply the way the ego tries to handle the situation when
you finally get a glimpse of the promised land, of the realm of knowledge
that God intends for you to live in.

The ego can accept the idea that return is necessary because it can so
easily make the idea seem difficult. Yet the Holy Spirit tells you that even
return is unnecessary, because what never happened cannot be difficult.
However, you can make the idea of return both necessary and difficult. Yet
it is surely clear that the perfect need nothing, and you cannot experience
perfection as a difficult accomplishment, because that is what you are.
(T-6.II.11:1 - 4)
The ego tries to convince you that what you have seen is something you lack
instead of something you <already have>. "In You is everything I hope to
find already given me" (1:6). <You are what you have been looking for>.

The Christ-nature is not something you have to develop. You don't have to
slave over the ego trying to change it into a Christ! That simply isn't
possible. If you think you have to <become> the Christ, you have put
yourself in a situation where "You can't get there from here." And that is
exactly where the ego wants you to be.

The Christ-nature is Who you really are! You just don't remember. It is
already inside you. It is you. You think you are something else, but you
aren't. That is the illusion the ego has cast. You think the ego is you! You
think that all this awful stuff, all this miserable little worm nature, this
weakling, this sniveling coward, is what you are. That is not you. The ego
is not you. The ego is not anything, and not anywhere; it is just a thought
you have about yourself, a thought that is wholly false. Christ "is the only
part of you that has reality in truth" (W-pII.6.3:2).

When you feel as if you have to struggle, when you feel as if you have to
make all kinds of difficult choices, then you are seeing yourself as an ego,
at the bottom of the mountain looking up. When you see yourself as the
Christ, there is nothing to do.

Our only problem is thinking we have a problem. The thought that "I don't
have it yet" is the problem. We need to be enlightened from thinking we need
to be enlightened. All that has to change is that thought, and the thought
changes nothing, does nothing, because we are always already enlightened,
always already happy, always already perfect. God created us that way and we
can't change it; all we can do is forget it and pretend we are something
else.

In today's moment of quiet we can taste the flavor of that stillness in
which there is nothing to do and nowhere to go. "The stillness of today will
give us hope that we have found the way, and travelled far along it to a
wholly certain goal" (2:1). We can taste the reality of the end, even in the
midst of our traveling; we can know the goal is "wholly certain," and even
inevitable.

     Today we will not doubt the end which God Himself has promised us. 
     We trust in Him, and in our Self, Who still is one with Him.	(2:2
- 3)

What Is the Holy Spirit?

Part 6: W-pII.7.3:2 - 3

What are "the means you made, by which you would attain what is forever
unattainable" (3:2)? The unattainable is, of course, separation, or life
that is separate from God. The means we made to attain this goal include our
bodies, the illusions of choices (alternatives to God and to love), fear,
attack, conflict, denial, special relationships, sights and sounds, and the
whole phenomenal world of perception. The Holy Spirit understands all of
these things perfectly. He knows exactly what they are, how they work, and
why we made them.
"And if you offer them to Him, He will employ the means you made for exile
to restore your mind to where it truly is at home" (3:3).

This is the miracle. Everything we made to exile ourselves from God can be
used to restore our minds to their real home. But for that to happen we must
"offer them to Him." He is the bridge between what we made and what we are.
He is "the Great Transformer of perception" (T-17.II.5:2). He can completely
reverse the purpose of everything we made in madness, and use it to restore
us to sanity. If we give those things to Him.

And so we need to bring all these things to Him, asking Him to use them for
His purposes, rather than the purpose for which we made them. Give Him our
bodies. Give Him our special relationships. Give Him our power of decision.
Give Him our attack thoughts, our defenses, our very denial. (He can use
even denial to "deny the denial of truth" [T-12.II.1:5].) Give Him our
perceptions, our eyes and ears. Give Him our whole world and everything in
it. He will not take them away from us. He will take them and use them to
restore us to Heaven.




From sue at circleofa.org  Mon Oct 12 06:20:33 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:20:33 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] [RESEND] The Practice Instructions to Part II
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAAPRRHty/7alJjMcQMtmC2PwBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>




The Practice instructions to Part II

PURPOSE: The introduction to Part II talks as if, in the remaining part of
this year, we are trying to reach the end of our spiritual journey: "This
year has brought us to eternity" (10:8). However, the Manual, in Section 16
("How Should the Teacher of God Spend His Day?") implies a more modest goal:
to reach a place where we practice because of our own motivation and
inspiration, rather than because a book is telling us to. This would
transform our practicing from a special assignment into a way of life. Part
II of the Workbook, with its absence of daily practice instructions, is an
important step in this direction. If here, in the relatively formless
landscape of Part II, your practice can blossom, rather than wither, you are
close to graduating from the Workbook.

I think we need to combine these two goals: We should aim for eternity,
realizing that by aiming high we will carry ourselves farther than if we
didn't, even though we may only get as far as weaning ourselves from the
Workbook's support. In other words, we should aim to graduate from time and
space, <so that> we can reach the more realistic goal of graduating from the
Workbook.

Reading the lesson: The lessons in Part II take a very different form than
in Part I. After the day's idea, we find just two paragraphs, both worded in
the first person, which expand and comment on the idea. This makes the Part
II lessons look much like what we see in most of the reviews, where the idea
for the day is followed by a series of "related comments" (W-pI.rI.In.2:3;
3:3) which are worded in the first person and expand on the idea. In the
reviews, these related comments become part of the exercises. We read them
over several times, we think about them, we repeat them to ourselves, we
savor each word. We make them our own, which is why they are worded <as if>
they are our own. We so fully engage them that reading them becomes more
like a practice than a simple act of reading.

It makes sense that we should use the comments in the Part II lessons in the
same way that we used the comments in the reviews, simply because the two
are so similar. And the introduction hints at this. For it speaks of our
reading of those paragraphs as an "exercise" (2:1) that is meant to induct
us (1:4) into "the periods of wordless, deep experience which should come
afterwards" (11:2). Let's look at how we can turn the reading of those two
paragraphs into a genuine exercise.

First, the< commentary paragraphs> (the nonitalicized paragraphs). I
recommend that you read these over slowly, perhaps several times, and
imagine that these really are your own thoughts (which is how they are
worded). To facilitate this, you may want to emphasize words like "I," "me,"
"my," and "mine."

Second, the< prayers>. These read as if you yourself are praying them to
God, and I recommend doing just that. Fix one sentence at a time in your
mind and then close your eyes and say that sentence to God. Try to really
mean it and expect Him to hear you. These appear to be designed to carry you
into the meditative state, and many of them virtually say that. Lesson 307
says of its prayer, "And with this prayer we enter silently into a state
where conflict cannot come" (W-pII.307.2:1). To enhance this effect, you may
want to pray the prayer several times.

Morning/evening quiet time: As long as you need for the effect you want.

The longer practice periods are meant to consist of Open Mind Meditation.
Begin by repeating the idea for the day, but in a special way: as an
invitation to God to come to you. "We say the words of invitation that His
Voice suggests, and then we wait for Him to come to us" (4:6). After
repeating these words, go into a time of expectant, wordless waiting (the
word "wait" here occurs six times). To wait normally means to stay
physically still in anticipation of some event. Here it means to stay
<mentally> still in anticipation of a wondrous event: the dawning of God on
your mind. Wait as if holding your breath for this event. Wait with an
attitude that "the memory of God is shimmering across the wide horizons of
our minds" (9:5). Your waiting, then, though motionless, should be very much
alive. It should be filled with expectancy: "We...expect our Father to
reveal Himself, as He has promised" (3:3). The basis for your expectancy, in
other words, is your trust that God will keep His promises. He promised to
come to you when you asked. You are asking; He will come. Hold this state
without the aid of repeating words. However, whenever your mind wanders, you
should use words--repeat the idea to draw yourself back to this nonverbal
waiting. "We will use that thought...to calm our minds at need" (3:1).

If you find Open Mind Meditation either too challenging or too unrewarding,
I would recommend using either of the other two methods the Workbook has
taught: Down-and-Inward Meditation or Name of God Meditation. In fact,
Lesson 222 clearly instructs you to use Name of God Meditation: <"Father, we
have no words except Your Name upon our lips and in our minds, as we come
quietly into Your Presence now"> (W-pII.222.2:1).

Hourly remembrance: One or two minutes as the hour strikes (reduce if
circumstances do not permit).

Do a miniature version of the morning practice. Repeat the idea as an
invitation to God, and then wait in wordless silence for Him to come to you.

Frequent reminder: As often as possible within each hour.

"Repeat [the idea], and allow your mind to rest a little time in silence and
in peace" (W-pI.rIII.In.10:5).

Response to temptation: When you are tempted to let upset cause you to
forget your goal.

Repeat the idea as a way of calling on God to dispel your upset (see 2:9 and
10:2).

Reading the "What Is" section: Before one of the day's practice periods (not
necessarily the morning one), read the relevant "What Is" section. Don't
just read it casually. Read it slowly and think about it "a little while"
(11:4).

* * *

LET US PRAY

What are we supposed to do with the prayers in Part II of the Workbook for
<A Course in Miracles>? There are 140 of them, one for each lesson. This has
puzzled many a Course student who, upon reaching Part II, finds himself
confronted each day with an italicized prayer directed at God. Is this
prayer offered by the author of the Course on our behalf? Do we simply read
it? Do we actually pray it? If so, why?

Actually, I am only <assuming> that this issue has puzzled Course students.
I have never really heard much discussion about these prayers. They sit
there on the page, staring at us every day for five straight months, but we
don't seem to talk much about them. The only perspective I recall hearing is
that they must be metaphorical because God can't hear our prayers.

Having done the Workbook several times, I too didn't know what to do with
these prayers. Yet, to be honest, I hadn't really confronted the question. I
would just dutifully open my book and read the prayer attached to that day's
lesson. The prayers generally struck me as being a kind of Course word
salad: a series of typical Course words--Christ, peace, joy, Heaven,
etc.--tossed together as one would toss a salad.

Then one day a few years ago, all that changed for me. I was on a short
retreat and, for some reason, the first thing I did was sit down and try to
discover what the Course wants us to do with its prayers. Having spent many
years studying the Workbook's practice instructions, I had learned that
virtually all our questions about practice are answered right in the
Workbook, if we pay careful attention. Now, for the first time, it occurred
to me that this ought to be true for those prayers; we should expect there
to be instructions for what to do with them.

The logical place for those instructions was the introduction to Part II,
since that is where we find the practice instructions for the entirety of
Part II, where the prayers are found. Within minutes I found two sentences
that ended my search and changed my relationship with the Course and with
God. Here they are:

We say some simple words of welcome, and expect our Father to reveal
Himself, as He has promised. (WpII.In.3:3)

We say the words of invitation that His Voice suggests, and then we wait for
Him to come to us. (WpII.In.4:6)

>From these sentences and the paragraphs around them I obtained the following
picture:

The Course has given us words (from the Holy Spirit) which we are to say to
God as words of invitation and welcome. Once we invite Him with these words,
we sit in a state of silent expectancy, waiting for Him to come and reveal
Himself to us in direct wordless experience.

What are these "words"? In this context, they are definitely the thought for
the day, the lesson title. But are they confined to that? Don't these
"simple words of welcome" also sound like they could be the prayers? After
all, like these words, the prayers are words given us by the Course which
are written as if we are saying them to God.

So I turned the page and looked at the first prayers in Part II. They
resoundingly confirmed what I was thinking. This is how the first prayer
begins:

<Father, I come to You today to seek the peace that You alone can give. I
come in silence>. (W-pII.221.1:1-2)

Just as the introduction described, in this prayer we state our intention to
have an encounter with God in the silence of our minds. The comments that
follow this prayer continue along the same lines: "Now [that we have said
this prayer] do we wait in quiet....We wait with one intent...[for God] to
reveal Himself unto His Son" (W-pII.221.2:1, 6). Here is exactly what the
introduction said: Once we say these words of welcome, we wait in silence
for God to reveal Himself to us.

The next prayer was very similar. In it we state our intention to silently
enter into an experience of God's Presence:

<Father, we have no words except Your Name upon our lips and in our minds,
as we come quietly into Your Presence now, and ask to rest with You in peace
a while>. (W-pII.222.2:1)

This was a very intellectual process of detective work, but its results were
extremely practical: At last I felt I knew what to do with those prayers! I
am to say them directly to God as preparation for a direct wordless
encounter with Him.

So I immediately tried this out. I spent the next hour or so going through
the first twenty prayers in Part II, praying them as I had just discovered I
should. I will never forget that time. It was a pivotal moment in my journey
with the Course. Until that moment, I had no idea how much richness was in
those prayers. What seemed like word salad when read as information became a
wealth of emotional experience when repeated as prayer, when spoken to God.

I was astonished by the sense of loving intimacy with God that shone through
these prayers. I had never realized that <this> was how the Course wanted me
to think about God. God came across not as a remote metaphysical
abstraction, an impersonal essence that is completely unaware of us.
Instead, He came across as near and dear, as the most attentive, loving
Father one could possibly imagine, always there, always listening, always
answering, wanting only to lavish all of His Love upon us. "He covers me
with kindness and with care" (W-pII.222.1:4), one of the lessons said. And
that is exactly how I felt, blanketed in His kindness and care.

Since that day, these prayers have become a staple in my daily life. There
are few things I enjoy doing more than sitting down and spending time with
them. They have literally transformed my relationship with God. My sense of
God before was somewhat remote and abstract. Yet increasingly these prayers
have implanted in me <their> sense of God, so that my feeling for Him has
become a deep well of sustenance and comfort that I draw from daily.

As time went on, I fell into the habit of using these prayers before my
meditation time, because I found them to be the ideal way to prepare my mind
for seeking God in meditation. They gathered the scattered and chaotic
threads of my thought into a single desire to be with God. After I had been
using them in this way for some time, I remembered something: <This is
exactly what they are for>. This is what the instructions in the Workbook
say is their purpose. We are to use the words of these prayers to prepare
our minds for a direct, wordless encounter with God. I can attest to the
fact that they serve their intended purpose very well indeed.

I therefore encourage every student of the Course to avail him- or herself
of the great benefit of these prayers. Try them out and see if you are not
drawn to return to them. Here are some tips for getting the most out of
them:

1. <Focus on one line at a time>. Dwell on each line and let it sink in
before going on to the next.

2. <Say it directly to God>. When the prayer says "Father," have a sense of
speaking directly to God, and of Him in some sense hearing you.

3. <Make it from you>. When the prayer says "I" or "me," have a sense of you
being the one saying the prayer.

4. <Mean it>, as much as you can. Try to make it the prayer of your own
heart.

5. <Make it specific>. For instance, when the prayer we will use below says
"a something I have called by many names," list some of the names you have
given what you seek.

6. <Feel free to elaborate> on the prayer as it evokes additional thoughts
and feelings in you.

To try out this method of using these prayers, I would like to utilize the
following prayer from Lesson 231, "Father, I will but to remember You." My
suggestion is for you to repeat each line slowly, with concentration and
sincerity. Try to see the fullness of meaning contained in each line. Try
also to go through the prayer twice or more.

1. What can I seek for, Father, but Your Love?

2. Perhaps I think I seek for something else; a something I have called by
many names.

3. Yet is Your Love the only thing I seek, or ever sought.

4. For there is nothing else that I could ever really want to find.

5. Let me remember You.

6. What else could I desire but the truth about myself?

What was your experience in repeating these lines? Was it an experience you
want more of? I sincerely hope that the prayers in the Workbook will become
the blessing in your life that they continue to be in mine.





From sue at circleofa.org  Tue Oct 13 05:59:09 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:59:09 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] LESSON 287 - OCTOBER 14
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAAJxmTWaiIW1ClxZOClmUKlABAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>




LESSON 287 - OCTOBER 14

"You are my goal, my Father. Only you."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS 

See complete Part II practice  instructions in separate document.  
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

COMMENTARY

This lesson comes from a very high place. It is something that would be
spoken by a person ready to live in the real world, a prayer from the heart
of Christ within me. It is the heartfelt thoughts of Christ, expressed in
words; it is the mindset that I seek to listen to all the time. And so it is
true of me; I can speak these words with honesty, even though I know that
often I listen to the ego, which has every other goal but God.

If I feel today that I cannot say with simple honesty, "You are my goal, my
Father. Only You," then let me look with honesty, and without fear, on what
other goals I still cherish. Let me ask myself, "What could be a substitute
for happiness? What gift could I prefer before the peace of God?" (1:2-3).
Any such other goal is obviously a foolish one. Any goal that distracts me
from the peace of God is unworthy of me.

If I have another goal, if I cannot say "Only You," then I am desiring to go
someplace other than Heaven; I am looking for a substitute for happiness; I
am seeking something which I think is preferable to the peace of God; I am
looking to find and keep something which I think is better than my own
Identity; I am choosing to live with fear rather than with love.

It really is that simple.

In the Course, Jesus assures me that it is not shameful to recognize these
things about myself. Recognizing my false goals is the beginning of wisdom.
All that is needful is for me to recognize what I am doing, what other goals
I am choosing, and the power of those things will simply fall away.
<Pretending> to love only God while secretly holding on to other goals is a
sure guarantee of failure and unhappiness. Honest recognition of those other
goals, and of my responsibility in choosing them, is the sure way of
release.

WHAT IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?

Part 7: W-pII.7.4:1

>From knowledge, where He has been placed by God, the Holy Spirit calls to
you, to let forgiveness rest upon your dreams, and be restored to sanity and
peace of mind.

The Holy Spirit has been placed in knowledge, by God. Knowledge is not a
place but a condition, a state of knowingness. The Holy Spirit knows the
truth; He knows reality. He knows our real being, what and who we really
are. On the one side He is firmly linked with God, knowledge, and reality.
>From that place of knowingness, He calls to us within our dreams. On the
other side He is linked firmly with us. He is aware of our dreams, aware of
what and who we think we are, as well as knowing what and who we really are.
He is perfectly equipped to lead us out from those dreams and into the truth
of full sanity.

If we listen, we can hear Him calling. We can become aware of something
within ourselves moving us to "let forgiveness rest upon [our] dreams." The
discipline of Workbook practice is teaching us, if we are doing the
exercises, to listen to that Voice, to respond to that inner urging.
Gradually we are becoming more and more aware of the times we are dreaming;
gradually we become aware we are dreaming most of the time. We can let
forgiveness rest on our dreams by bringing them to the Holy Spirit and
asking for His perception to replace our dreams. This is the way to sanity;
this is the way to peace of mind.

In Chapter 5, the first chapter in the Text which strongly presents the Holy
Spirit and His place in our return to God, He is often referred to as "the
Call." He is called "the Call to Atonement" (T-5.I.5:4), "the Call to
return" (T-5.I.5:5), "the Call to joy" (T-5.II.3:2), "the Call to awaken and
be glad" (T-5.II.10:5), and "the Call for God" (T-5.II.10:7). This Call is
something within our own minds. Something is drawing us home; if you are
reading this Course, you have felt that Call and responded to It. We can
dissociate that Call and block it from our awareness, or we can deliberately
turn our attention to It, and listen. He always calls us to forgiveness,
both to forgive and to be forgiven. His goal is the end of guilt. He speaks
to us, always, of innocence. He seeks to turn us from the way of fear to the
way of love. If we give Him our full attention, He will safely guide us
home. He knows the way.




From sue at circleofa.org  Wed Oct 14 06:09:27 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:09:27 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] LESSON 287 - OCTOBER 14
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAAFsyrPB9Z/9Ks0iJoEz0NAsBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>




LESSON 287 - OCTOBER 14

"You are my goal, my Father. Only you."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS 

See complete Part II practice  instructions in separate document.  
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

COMMENTARY

This lesson comes from a very high place. It is something that would be
spoken by a person ready to live in the real world, a prayer from the heart
of Christ within me. It is the heartfelt thoughts of Christ, expressed in
words; it is the mindset that I seek to listen to all the time. And so it is
true of me; I can speak these words with honesty, even though I know that
often I listen to the ego, which has every other goal but God.

If I feel today that I cannot say with simple honesty, "You are my goal, my
Father. Only You," then let me look with honesty, and without fear, on what
other goals I still cherish. Let me ask myself, "What could be a substitute
for happiness? What gift could I prefer before the peace of God?" (1:2-3).
Any such other goal is obviously a foolish one. Any goal that distracts me
from the peace of God is unworthy of me.

If I have another goal, if I cannot say "Only You," then I am desiring to go
someplace other than Heaven; I am looking for a substitute for happiness; I
am seeking something which I think is preferable to the peace of God; I am
looking to find and keep something which I think is better than my own
Identity; I am choosing to live with fear rather than with love.

It really is that simple.

In the Course, Jesus assures me that it is not shameful to recognize these
things about myself. Recognizing my false goals is the beginning of wisdom.
All that is needful is for me to recognize what I am doing, what other goals
I am choosing, and the power of those things will simply fall away.
<Pretending> to love only God while secretly holding on to other goals is a
sure guarantee of failure and unhappiness. Honest recognition of those other
goals, and of my responsibility in choosing them, is the sure way of
release.

WHAT IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?

Part 7: W-pII.7.4:1

>From knowledge, where He has been placed by God, the Holy Spirit calls to
you, to let forgiveness rest upon your dreams, and be restored to sanity and
peace of mind.

The Holy Spirit has been placed in knowledge, by God. Knowledge is not a
place but a condition, a state of knowingness. The Holy Spirit knows the
truth; He knows reality. He knows our real being, what and who we really
are. On the one side He is firmly linked with God, knowledge, and reality.
>From that place of knowingness, He calls to us within our dreams. On the
other side He is linked firmly with us. He is aware of our dreams, aware of
what and who we think we are, as well as knowing what and who we really are.
He is perfectly equipped to lead us out from those dreams and into the truth
of full sanity.

If we listen, we can hear Him calling. We can become aware of something
within ourselves moving us to "let forgiveness rest upon [our] dreams." The
discipline of Workbook practice is teaching us, if we are doing the
exercises, to listen to that Voice, to respond to that inner urging.
Gradually we are becoming more and more aware of the times we are dreaming;
gradually we become aware we are dreaming most of the time. We can let
forgiveness rest on our dreams by bringing them to the Holy Spirit and
asking for His perception to replace our dreams. This is the way to sanity;
this is the way to peace of mind.

In Chapter 5, the first chapter in the Text which strongly presents the Holy
Spirit and His place in our return to God, He is often referred to as "the
Call." He is called "the Call to Atonement" (T-5.I.5:4), "the Call to
return" (T-5.I.5:5), "the Call to joy" (T-5.II.3:2), "the Call to awaken and
be glad" (T-5.II.10:5), and "the Call for God" (T-5.II.10:7). This Call is
something within our own minds. Something is drawing us home; if you are
reading this Course, you have felt that Call and responded to It. We can
dissociate that Call and block it from our awareness, or we can deliberately
turn our attention to It, and listen. He always calls us to forgiveness,
both to forgive and to be forgiven. His goal is the end of guilt. He speaks
to us, always, of innocence. He seeks to turn us from the way of fear to the
way of love. If we give Him our full attention, He will safely guide us
home. He knows the way.





From sue at circleofa.org  Thu Oct 15 05:52:45 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:52:45 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 289 - October 16
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAAFb18lxV3hpNr07J5oA2IZcBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



LESSON 289 - OCTOBER 16

"The past is over. It can touch me not."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS 

See complete Part II practice instructions in separate document.  
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

COMMENTARY

We are learning in the Course that mind is the cause of the world we see.
Say I find myself angry at someone. Instead of assuming, as I have done all
my life, that what I have seen is real, I recognize that it is an illusion
of some kind. I don't try to figure it out, I just give it to the Holy
Spirit. I recognize that my angry thoughts are not caused by what I see, but
rather, my thoughts of anger caused my perception of what I see.

My thoughts are prior to any sight and sound. Many people see this in what
to me is a partial way. They see that our present feelings are not caused by
what is presently happening, but they assume that there must be something in
the past that caused these feelings. "Can you recall another time you felt
like this?" is their key question. The idea is that you can remember some
past event that aroused this feeling, and by realizing that the feeling is
an unresolved feeling from the earlier event, you can detach the feeling
from the present one. "I'm not really angry at you; I am angry because you
represent my mother to me." That sort of thing. The Course does talk about
this kind of "shadow figure" from the past, but it points out that such
shadow figures "are not real, and have no hold over you unless you bring
them with you" (T-13.IV.6:2). (Sections IV through VI in Chapter 13 all deal
with releasing the past.) In other words, our present distress or anger is
not caused by the past, but by a present decision to bring its pain into the
present. A decision being made in the present can be undone in the present.

The past "can touch me not." Past events are not the cause of my feelings,
either. The mistake in that kind of connecting of present emotions to past
events, which certainly can be useful to a limited degree, is that it still
makes the false connection of some event or person as the cause of my
feeling, with my feeling as the effect. The key the Course gives is that
"the past is over." If I am seeing the past I am "seeing but what is not
there" (1:2). The one true thought that can be had about the past, says the
Course, is that it is not here (W-pI.8.2:1). It does not (any longer) exist.
All that exists is a thought in my mind which I call a memory, and that
memory is imperfect, slanted to my perceptions and with no awareness of the
inner reality of other people who were also present. All I remember is what
I saw, what I heard, what I thought, what I felt. So my picture of the past
is totally inadequate and cannot be the basis for any kind of rational
judgment.

When I do recognize that my present feeling is caused by viewing present
events through the filter of a memory of the past, that is good because it
can serve to help me detach my feelings from the things happening in the
now. But I need to go one step further. I need to see that my feelings are
not caused by the past, either. The past has no power over me. The past
doesn't exist. The past I remember is my own thoughts about the past.

If my feelings are not caused by the present and not caused by the past,
then what are they caused by? Certainly not by the future, which has not
happened yet. Then what?

"I am affected only by my thoughts" (W-pII.338.Heading). Only by my
thoughts. That is the bottom line. The Course says that eventually we must
learn that there is nothing outside of our mind to affect us; thought is all
there is. Everything else is the effect of thought, not the cause of
anything (T-26.VII.4:9; T-10.In.1:1). 

There is nothing outside you. That is what you must ultimately learn.
(T-18.VI.1:1-2)

Why do we have thoughts that cause bad feelings? It all goes back to the
original thought of separation. We think we have stolen our being from God,
we think we succeeded in creating a separate self, and we think that God
must be angry. We believe in the wrath of God. In less theological terms, we
are guilty because we see ourselves existing in a world that demands
selfishness for survival. We are guilty because (we think that) we are
separate and it is our own fault.

We have this profound sense of guilt, so profound it terrifies us. We cannot
even bear to look at it. We are afraid of oblivion, afraid of death, more
afraid of hell. Fear transmutes into many forms: anger, depression,
jealousy, apathy. We open our eyes and immediately we are looking for a
scapegoat, something we can blame as the cause of these terrible feelings.
Inevitably we find a culprit. "You! You are the one who has stolen away my
peace!" We made the world to serve this purpose.

The Holy Spirit comes into our lives to "employ the means you made for exile
to restore your mind to where it truly is at home" (W-pII.7.3:3). We look on
each event as a possible scapegoat for our awful feelings. The <Holy Spirit>
looks on each event as a possible means of showing us love. We learn to see
everything as either love or a call for love. To the ego, everything
witnesses to separation and guilt. To the Spirit, everything witnesses to
the reality of love.

To perceive the world forgiveness offers we must be willing to let the past
go, to see that it cannot touch us <now>. The forgiven world can only be
seen <now>. We have to choose to stop looking at "a past that is not there"
(2:1).

WHAT IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?

Part 9: W-pII.7.5:1-2

The Holy Spirit is the "Father's gift.a call from Love to Love, that It be
but Itself" (5:1-2). That is what the calling within us is all about. It is
Love calling to Itself to be Itself. Whenever I start feeling as though God
is calling me to some kind of "surrender" that makes it appear as though I
am submitting my will to another, superior will, I recall that what is
happening is simply that I am surrendering to Love. I am surrendering to
<myself>, to what I am in truth. God is not calling me to give up myself and
become something I do not want to be; God is calling me to <be my Self>. To
be what I was created to be and still am.

I have confused myself and convinced myself that I am something else, and
now, in hearing the call to return to myself, to "return to love," as
Marianne Williamson puts it, I feel fear. It seems as though I am being
asked to give up myself, to "surrender" to God at the expense of my own
being. Exactly the opposite is true. I am being called to surrender only to
what I am in truth. I am called to be Love, because Love is what I am.

 




From sue at circleofa.org  Fri Oct 16 06:07:23 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:07:23 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] LESSON 290 - OCTOBER 17
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAAC2uJGtaRK9KrSYIbaetvPoBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>




LESSON 290 - OCTOBER 17

"My present happiness is all I see."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS 

See complete Part II practice instructions in separate document.  A short
summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

COMMENTARY

"Unless I look upon what is not there, my present happiness is all I see"
(1:1). That is the real key: not looking at what isn't here. So often we are
looking at the past, or as I was doing as I lay in bed this morning, the
future. Neither past nor future is here. By definition they are "not now."
What Jesus is saying here is that if we can stop for a moment looking at
past or future, what we will see is present happiness. As one guru says,
"You are always already happy."

What does this have to do with the leading lesson on the Holy Spirit? "What
I perceive without God's Own Correction [the Holy Spirit] for the sight I
made is frightening and painful to behold" (1:4). The future is frightening;
the past is painful. I need the corrective spectacles of the Holy Spirit to
see the truth.

The world I see is painful because the ego made it to support itself. If I
just go on looking at it through the eyes the ego made, I am going to see
witnesses to evil, sin, danger, and guilt. I need to see it a different way.

I'm not being asked to blind myself, to bury my head in the sand and pretend
the world is not there. I'm being asked to willingly put on corrective
lenses and see the world differently, as a witness to love, joy, and peace.
First of all, in this lesson, I am being asked to look within and notice
that without reference to the past or the future, I am naturally happy. I am
being asked to stop looking at what isn't there. Seeing what <is> there in a
different way is the next stage, and there will be little effort to it
because I will start from a place of happiness.

If I am already happy, nothing in the present can change that because I
don't approach it from a sense of lack. I don't approach it at all, I am
already in it.

This is a great technique for meditation: as thoughts arise, if they concern
the past in any way, just let them float by. If they concern the future in
any way, just let them float by. If you can do that, what you will discover,
always, is your present happiness. You don't have to manufacture it because
it always exists.

WHAT IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?

Part 10: W-pII.7.5:3-4

          The Holy Spirit is His gift, by which the quietness of 
          Heaven is restored to God's beloved Son.	(5:3) 

I am so grateful today for this gift, without which the quietness of Heaven
would be forever beyond my reach. If I were to try to summarize this page's
answer to the question it poses, "What is the Holy Spirit?" I would put it
something like this:

The Holy Spirit is God's gift to us to restore our minds, caught in
illusion, back to peace and sanity. He is a changeless link between our
minds and God's. Through His awareness of both the eternal truth of God and
our insanity, He is able to utilize the very illusions we have made to lead
us back to reality. We bring our illusions to Him. He translates our
illusions from witnesses to fear into witnesses to love, giving us a
completely new perception of everything we see. This new perception is so
aligned with truth that it enables the end of perception, and the final
transfer of our minds to their original state of knowledge.

          Would you refuse to take the function of completing God, 
          when all He wills is that you be complete?	(5:4)

Once again the Course appeals to us to actively take our part in this
process, and to accept our function as given by God: to complete Him. That
is a startling phrase, isn't it? Elsewhere the Course tells us that whenever
we question our own value, we should say, "God Himself is incomplete without
me" (T-9.VII.8:2). A little later it explains, "God is incomplete without
you because His grandeur is total, and you cannot be missing from it"
(T-9.VIII.9:8). It tells us, "Without you there would be a lack in God, a
Heaven incomplete, a son without a Father" (T-24.VI.2:1).

Of course it is impossible that God should be incomplete: "God is not
incomplete, and He is not childless" (T-11.I.5:6). The point is that if we
are part of God, then God would be incomplete if we were not forever united
with Him. We cannot be missing from God; therefore, let us take the part in
Him given to us, and end our <refusal> to do so. Our part in completing God
is to be complete: "All that He wills is that you be complete" (5:4). We
<are> being asked only to bring our illusions of incompletion to the Holy
Spirit, that He can dispel them and restore to us the awareness of our
eternal completion.

The process of bringing our illusions to the Holy Spirit often seems fearful
because, from our perspective, it seems to entail loss. We are being asked
to give up something. But the something we are asked to give up is only our
illusion of separation, our illusion of incompletion. We give up our lack,
and remember our wholeness. This is, as Lesson 98 puts it, a bargain in
which we cannot lose:
You are being asked for nothing in return for everything. Here is a bargain
that you cannot lose. And what you gain is limitless indeed! (W-pI.98.6:3-5)
 




From sue at circleofa.org  Sat Oct 17 12:47:07 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:47:07 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] LESSON 291 - OCTOBER 18
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAAOr2t5wA4ktItVA833uydKwBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



LESSON 291 - OCTOBER 18

"This is a day of stillness and of peace."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS 

See complete Part II practice instructions in separate document.  

A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

COMMENTARY

I write my comments on this lesson at the end of the day (so that it is
awaiting you in your morning e-mail).*  My day today seemed to be anything
but a day of stillness and peace, more like a day of staggering pace. I was
rushing about meeting my body's needs, stocking up on groceries I'd let run
down to nothing, buying some vitamins, razor blades, and so on. In the back
of my mind was a booklet waiting its finishing touches (and already behind
schedule), a flyer for an upcoming workshop, phone calls to make, a stack of
correspondence-school papers to read and respond to. I had lunch at 3:45 PM
and supper at 8:15. My details are different from yours, but I'm sure lots
of your days are similar in tone, if not in content.

We all have the demands of time and circumstance upon us. How do we find
inner peace in the midst of it? This lesson speaks of "Christ's vision,"
which "looks through me today" (1:1). "His sight shows me all things
forgiven and at peace, and offers this same vision to the world" (1:2). The
peace being spoken of here is the peace that comes from a different
perspective, an <inner> peace. Elsewhere the Course acknowledges that when
we live in this world we are involved in "busy doing" (T-18.VII.8:3). It
isn't that the busy doing ceases. It's that our mind can be at peace even in
the midst of busy doing, a "quiet center" from which we operate (same
reference).

I was not doing so well at maintaining that quiet center today, or rather,
at remembering it was there and making use of it; I was operating more on
the surface of my mind. As a result, I felt a little frantic. This lesson
calls me back to home base. The vision Christ offers me is one of loveliness
and holiness (1:4-5). It is the sight of a forgiven world, whose forgiveness
includes my own. It is the peace of knowing that, although I may forget the
toilet paper or fail to write the needed letter, my Self is unchanged, God
is my Father, and I share the holiness of God Himself.

In my hyper-activity today there was a certain sense that, somehow, my
salvation depended on remembering everything I had to buy or finishing all
the tasks I hoped to accomplish. What a relief to know I was wrong! Even in
my study of the Course, sometimes, an anxiety creeps in, thinking I have to
understand everything perfectly in order to find my way home. Instead, as I
read this lesson, I can relax:
          I do not know the way to You. But You are wholly certain. 
          Father, guide Your Son along the quiet path that leads to You. 
          Let my forgiveness be complete, and let the memory of 
          You return to me.	(2:3-6)

WHAT IS THE REAL WORLD?

Part 1: W-pII.8.1:1-2

The Course's discussion of the term "real world" is somewhat paradoxical.
We've read its statement, earlier in the Workbook, that "There is no world!"
(W-pI.132.6:2). How, then, can there be a real world? It even admits there
is a contradiction in the term (see T-26.III.3:3). And here we are told, in
the opening statement on the topic, "The real world is a symbol" (1:1). A
symbol is not the thing it represents; it only stands for something else, as
the word "tree" stands for the object we call by that name. The real world
is only a symbol, "like the rest of what perception offers" (1:1).

The word "tree" is not a tree. Likewise, the real world is not the thing it
represents or stands for. It only symbolizes it. What does the real world
symbolize or stand for? "Yet it stands for what is opposite to what you
made" (1:2). We made separation; the real world symbolizes unity (but is not
itself that unity). We made fear; the real world symbolizes love (but is not
itself that love). We made error; the real world symbolizes truth (but is
not itself that truth).

The world itself is nothing but a symbol of a thought. It can symbolize the
thought of fear, or it can symbolize the thought of love. It can, in our
perception, consist of "witnesses to fear" or witnesses to love
(W-pII.7.2:2). The world itself is not the reality of anything; it merely
stands for something that exists in the mind, as all perception does. It is
"the outside picture of an inward condition" (T-21.In.1:5). What changes in
the transformation effected by the Holy Spirit is not the world itself, but
how we see it; what it symbolizes for us. This is why the message of the
Course to us is this: "Seek not to change the world, but choose to change
your mind about the world" (T-21.In.1:7).
The real world that we seek, and which is the goal of the Course for us, is
not, then, a changed world, but a changed perception of the world.
~~~
* I have left this sentence almost exactly as it first appeared when the
lesson commentaries were first mailed out by electronic mail on the
Internet, in order to preserve the original feel of immediacy in the whole
paragraph.





From sue at circleofa.org  Sun Oct 18 13:19:33 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:19:33 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] LESSON 292 - OCTOBER 19
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAANMykRlonYlKggIkV4GZBdQBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



LESSON 292 - OCTOBER 19

"A happy outcome to all things is sure."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS 

See complete Part II practice instructions in separate document.  
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

Practice suggestion: As I often do, I suggest that you make today's idea
more specific in your practicing of it. Think of a situation that is
weighing on you or worrying you. Then say, "A happy outcome to this
situation is sure." Realize there is no time limit on when that happy ending
might come, yet also realize that "it is up to us when this [outcome] is
reached" (1:3).

COMMENTARY

God's promises make no exceptions. And He guarantees that only joy can be
the final outcome found for everything. Yet it is up to us when this is
reached; how long we let an alien will appear to be opposing His.
(1:1-3)

"It is up to us when this is reached." We keep coming back to that: <When>
we experience the outcome of joy in all things is <up to us>. My experience
of anything less than total joy is due to my own choice to "let an alien
will appear to be opposing His." It seems to me as if <my own will> is at
times opposing God's. It seems as if I don't want to let go of the little
creature comforts, the physical, mental, and emotional indulgences I
continually grant myself in the illusion that I need them.

The law of perception states, "You see what you believe is there, and you
believe it there because you want it there" (T-25.III.1:3). If I see in
myself a will that differs from God's, I see it because I believe it is
there. I believe my will is different from God's will. And I believe that
because I <want> to believe that. If I am alike to God in every way, God and
I have only one Will, and the alien will I perceive has no meaning. That is
the exact truth! The alien will <has> no meaning! It does not exist. That is
why I want to see "my" will as opposed to God's, and why I do. The apparent
conflict in my life is just the ego's vain attempts to hold on to its
identity, which is wholly illusory.

The truth of the matter is that what I see-my resistance to the will of God,
which is my perfect happiness-does not exist. I am projecting that from my
mind. What I see is an illusion of myself. It is not real, and therefore
carries no taint of guilt.

And while we think this will is real, we will not find the end He has
appointed as the outcome of all problems we perceive, all trials we see, and
every situation that we meet.	(1:4)

All of us go around most of the time consciously or unconsciously disturbed
by the undercurrent of resistance to God we believe exists within our
selves. We think it is <real>. We read A Course in Miracles and determine to
be more loving, more forgiving, and then we encounter a deep resistance to
the entire idea, a seemingly immovable wall that will not allow us to
change. We have an addiction we can't break. We find one relationship in
which forgiveness seems impossible despite all of our efforts. We determine
that "today I will judge nothing that occurs" (W-pII.243.Heading) and then,
minutes later, flare up in anger over some small unfairness. And we feel
despair, we feel we cannot do it. Somehow we are incorrigible. Some part of
us is beyond redemption. Some part of our will is implacably opposed to God.

As long as we believe that this part of us which seems opposed to God is
<real>, Jesus is saying, we won't find the real world. We won't find our
escape. We won't find the "happy outcome to all things."
We have to come to the point where we are simultaneously fully aware of that
stubborn knot within us, and aware that it is not real. We have to get to
the place where we <see> it, <own> it, and <take responsibility> for it, and
yet do so entirely without guilt. To look on the ego's darkness without
guilt is possible only if, as we look, we have abandoned all belief in its
reality. That is what the Holy Spirit will enable us to do. Through His
enabling, we will come to see that the ego is an illusion of ourselves
projected from our minds, nothing more than an illusion, and therefore
nothing to be upset about. "Yes, I see the knot of resistance in me, but
what I see is not really there. I am seeing it, but it isn't real. It
doesn't change anything about reality. I am the beloved Son of God, even if
I can't see that now."

We want the ego knot to change. We want it to go away. And while we believe
in its reality, it won't. The ego <is> incorrigible. Self-forgiveness
involves accepting that about ourselves. The ego will always be the ego,
that's the bad news. But the ego is not who we are, and that's the good
news.
When we catch ourselves listening to the ego, believing in the reality of an
alien will, we can come to the point of learning not to take it seriously.
It's as if we say, "I was dreaming again. Now, I choose to be awake." And if
we find we are not ready yet for full wakefulness, if the appearance of
resistance in ourselves still seems real, we can say, "Yes, I see that, I'm
not awake yet, and it still <seems> real, but at least I am <aware> that I
am dreaming." The ego is of no consequence. It's "no big deal," as Ken
Wapnick says. Even if we seem to be caught in the dream, we don't have to
accept guilt about it.

Yet is the ending certain. For God's Will is done in earth and Heaven. We
will seek and we will find according to His Will, which guarantees that our
will is done.	(1:5-7)

All the raging of the ego, all the apparent struggle: it's all a dream. The
ending is certain, and is totally unaffected by the ego's madness. There is
no will opposing God's, and therefore, His Will and ours will be done. My
will and God's are in fact the same, which guarantees the outcome. The
craziness of the ego dream has no effects, just as a dream has no effect on
the physical world. The craziness of the ego is just a play of images in the
mind, and nothing more than that. In the end there will be nothing but joy.

         We thank You, Father, for Your guarantee of only happy outcomes in
the end. 
         Help us not interfere, and so delay the happy endings You have
promised 
         us for every problem that we can perceive; 
         for every trial we think we still must meet.	(2:1-2)

"Help us not interfere." That is our prayer. Resisting the ego, being guilty
about it in ourselves, striving to change it, or demeaning ourselves because
of it, are all forms of interference. They all make the mistake of believing
the ego is real, believing there really is an alien will in us that opposes
God. To not interfere is to recognize that the ego is just a dream about
ourselves, and that nothing need be done about it. The most potent force
"against" the ego is the simple thought: "It doesn't matter. It doesn't mean
anything." Just bring it to the Holy Spirit and let Him handle it. Just say,
"Look, I'm dreaming again." And let it go.

WHAT IS THE REAL WORLD?

Part 2: W-pII.8.1:3-4

The world is a symbol, either of fear or of love. "Your world is seen
through eyes of fear, and brings the witnesses of terror to your mind"
(1:3). The voice we choose to listen to, within our minds, determines what
we see. If we listen to fear, the world we see symbolizes fear, and is
filled with "witnesses of terror." The world thus tells us what we tell it
to tell us.

When we listen to fear, we see things in the world that justify our fear. We
see hatred, attack, selfishness, anger, conflict, and murder. All of these
things are <interpretations> of what we are seeing. There is another
interpretation possible in every case. We can join our perception to that of
the Holy Spirit, and He will enable us to see the world differently.

"The real world cannot be perceived except through eyes forgiveness blesses,
so they see a world where terror is impossible, and witnesses to fear cannot
be found" (1:4). When we listen to love or forgiveness, we see things in the
world that justify love. Nothing we see witnesses to terror. Imagine a world
in which "terror is impossible," where nothing you see is saying to you, "Be
afraid!" That is the real world as the Course defines it. Everything is seen
"through eyes forgiveness blesses." The interpretation of everything we see
becomes entirely different from the one we are used to.
The mind determines which world we see. With the help of the Holy Spirit we
can choose what we want to see, and we will see it. The world we are looking
at may or may not have changed, but the interpretation we put upon it will
have done a 180. No longer will we see any of the vast variety of forms of
fear the ego has invented; in their place we will see nothing but love, or
the call for love. Nothing we see will call for condemnation and punishment.
Everything we see will call only for love.






From sue at circleofa.org  Mon Oct 19 05:45:31 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:45:31 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 293 - October 20
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAANeSx49wp2VJimvMNzY4ZVkBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>




LESSON 293 - OCTOBER 20

"All fear is past and only love is here."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS 

See complete Pat II practice instructions in separate document.  
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

Practice suggestion: The following exercise is based on this lesson's
teaching that your fear is caused by your past mistakes. Their presence in
your memory tells you that punishment is on the way, that you better be
afraid because you've got it coming to you. But these past mistakes are
gone. If you could open your eyes and see the present, you would see that
only love is really here.

Now for the exercise. Look ahead into your day and identify anything you are
afraid of, any event that's causing you worry or anxiety, or that you would
simply like to avoid. Try to identify several such fears. With each one you
find, say: 

     This fear is past
     because my past mistakes are gone.
     And only love is here,
     Because God is here.

COMMENTARY

I think of fear as related to the future, yet here it says "all fear is
past." This means more, I think, than that my experiences of fear are all
over. Understood that way it is almost wishful thinking. What it seems to
actually mean is that fear itself is in the past. Fear comes from the past,
it exists in the past only. When the past is real to me, with "all my past
mistakes oppressing it" (1:3), then I have fear (and only then). What I fear
is that the past determines the future. If my past is filled with mistakes
and things of guilt, and I consider it to be real, this generates my present
fear of the future.

The source of fear is making the past real in the present.

The Course teaches us that "the past that you remember never was"
(T-14.IX.1:10). At first it seems difficult to say to myself, "The things I
think happened in the past did not ever happen; they are not real." Perhaps
it is easier to say, "The past never existed in the way I think it did."
That seems more conceivable, more acceptable. To say that is only a step
toward the truth, but I think it can be a helpful step. We begin by
admitting that our memories of the past are, to say the least, distorted.
Each one peoples his world with figures from his individual past, and it is
because of this that private worlds do differ. Yet the figures that he sees
were never real, for they are made up only of his reactions to his brothers,
and do not include their reactions to him.	(T-13.V.2:1-2)

More than that, the past we imagine we know is filled with reasons for guilt
and attack. We remember wrongs done to us, and wrongs we have done. That
perception must shift. If we accept the judgment of the Holy Spirit, the
perception of guilt must go. Forgiveness is a kind of selective remembering.
We can begin to see the past and everything in it as either the expression
of love or a call for help.
This is a kind of intermediate position. In a way we are still believing
that the past is (or was) real, but we are deciding to see it differently.
The ultimate truth is that time itself does not exist, the world does not
exist, bodies do not exist. They are nothing but the play of thoughts in our
mind.

A physical analogy helps me. Does an ocean wave exist? Is a wave real? In
one sense, yes; in another, no. There is no such thing as a wave apart from
the ocean. What we call a wave is no more than the play of physical energy
on water. The water, the ocean, is (in this physical plan) what is real; the
wave is here one moment, gone the next; in this moment comprised of one set
of water molecules, in the next comprised of a wholly different set of
molecules. A wave does not exist <in itself>, independent of all else.

The entire physical universe is nothing more than a wave in Eternal Mind.
Mind is all that is real.
In this sense, then, nothing of the past is real. All of the past of a wave
no longer exists. The past wave is totally and completely gone. Where it
passed now lies placid and calm, unaffected by the wave. Waves do not change
the ocean.

Some may be able to see it this way, to understand at least in concept that
the past simply does not 
exist. Some of us may need the simpler form, "It never happened the way I
think it did. Guilt was never real." The simpler form will eventually lead
to the fuller form, so it simply doesn't matter.
When I experience fear, then, one thing to look for is the belief in the
past that is behind it, perhaps hidden, but surely there. Only the past
makes me fearful of the future. That is why young children are so often
lacking in fear: they have no memory of past disasters to give rise to the
fear. When I feel fear, let me remember that it depends on my perception of
the past, and affirm: "What I remember never happened as I think it did.
There is nothing to fear."

When I deliberately choose to exclude the past from my consideration of the
present, "in the present love is obvious, and its effects apparent" (1:4).
The constant burden of the past, dredging up remembered horrors, totally
blocks this awareness of love's presence from my perception. All our
<learning> is nothing but an accumulation of ideas about the past. Therefore
all of it is nothing. We begin to <unlearn>, to deliberately forget what we
think the past has taught us, and in that we find true perception and
eventually true knowledge.

The world that we see, when we see without the fear carried over from the
past, is the real world. This is the world we are asking to see today in
this lesson. Underneath all the sounds of fear, the world is singing "hymns
of gratitude" (2:2). The perception of the Holy Spirit is able to penetrate
through the veneer of fear we have placed over reality. When we share His
perception, we realize the past is gone, and we see and hear what is here
<now>, when "love is obvious." Let me, then, join in the prayer: "I would
see only this world before my eyes today" (2:4).

WHAT IS THE REAL WORLD?

Part 3: W-pII.8.2:1-2

"The real world holds a counterpart for each unhappy thought reflected in
your world; a sure correction for the sights of fear and sounds of battle
which your world contains" (2:1). If the real world contains counterparts
for each unhappy thought, then it must consist of happy thoughts. The
difference is in the thoughts about what is seen, and not in the objects of
perception. In this sentence it seems almost as though the real world is
like a library of videos, each consisting of a different interpretation of
some person or event in our lives. We can choose to watch the videos of the
Holy Spirit or those of the ego. Same scenes, but different Director, with a
different meaning given to everything.

"The real world shows a world seen differently, through quiet eyes and with
a mind at peace" (2:2). The difference lies in the peacefulness of the mind
doing the perceiving. This is the first of three references to the state of
the mind that is doing the seeing. Others are "the mind that has forgiven
itself" (2:6) and "a mind at peace within itself" (3:4).

We all assume that our perceptions of the world are telling us something
real about the world. In fact, they are telling us something about our own
state of mind. The sights of fear and sounds of battle we perceive are only
reflections of the fear and battle within our own minds. When our minds have
been brought to peace, the world takes on a different appearance because our
minds are projecting their own state upon the world. Let me, then, seek the
healing of my own mind, and the healing of the world will take care of
itself.





From sue at circleofa.org  Wed Oct 21 05:54:52 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:54:52 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] LESSON 295 - OCTOBER 22
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAAAOQZ9BXFUNEs0dMZM2KjK4BAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>




LESSON 295 - OCTOBER 22

"The Holy Spirit looks through me today."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS 

See complete Part II practice instructions in separate document.  
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

COMMENTARY

My eyes are Christ's. "Christ asks that He may use my eyes today" (1:1). And
in the prayer at the end, Christ's eyes are mine. "Help me to use the eyes
of Christ today" (2:2). Two ways of saying the same thing: to ask that
Christ look through my eyes, or to ask that I see through His eyes, is to
ask that His vision, His eyes, replace my own limited vision.

Christ asks for my eyes to "offer peace of mind to me, and take away all
terror and all pain" (1:2). He is not asking me for sacrifice, but asking so
that He can give a gift to me. He offers to take my perception from me
because my perception shows me terror and pain; He offers to replace it with
His own vision, showing me peace, joy, and love.

As we give our lives to God we begin to experience that rather than living
we are being "lived." The Holy Spirit is looking through our eyes. He is
speaking through our lips. He is thinking with our minds. It is an
experience of being taken up and carried through life by a limitless energy
of love that is far greater than we can contain because it includes
everything.

Sometimes I seem so far from that, and yet I know that it is as near to me
as breathing. Nearer. This morning I ask, Father, for grace to surrender to
that flow of love, to surrender to the Holy Spirit, now, in this moment, and
over and over through the day, that I may share His vision of the world.
In a way this lesson is the entire Course: to let the Holy Spirit look
through me, to bathe the world with eyes of love. To walk through the day
with no purpose in its outward things, yet to live with a hidden agenda, a
secret mission: <I will be love in this situation>. That is all it is about,
and nothing else matters, nothing else is real. I am the light of the world.
I am here to "allow the Holy Spirit's Love to bless all things which I may
look upon, that His forgiving Love may rest on me" (2:2). That is what my
life is about, that is all it is about. I am here only to be what I am, to
be my Self, which is Love.

WHAT IS THE REAL WORLD?

Part 5: W-pII.8.3:1-3

What need has such a mind for thoughts of death, attack and murder? (3:1)

"Such a mind" as what? "A mind at peace" (2:2). A "mind that has forgiven
itself" (2:6). "A mind at peace within itself" (3:4). Can I imagine what it
would be like for my mind to be at peace within itself? Can I imagine what
it would feel like to have completely forgiven myself, to have no lingering
regrets over the past, no fear of future, no hidden guilt, and not one shred
of a sense of failure? To be at peace, and to have totally forgiven myself,
are the same thing. They must be. How can I be at peace if I have not
forgiven myself for something? How can I forgive myself for something if I
am not at peace about it?

Let me look at myself and be willing to face the self-condemnation that is
hidden in the dark closets of my mind. I know it is there. It is the source
of the constant vague uneasiness that haunts me, the tendency to look over
my shoulder, the seemingly slight anxiety that comes with an unexpected
letter or telephone call. Something in me is expecting to be "found out."
But this self-judgment is the source of more than just my personal feelings
of uneasiness. It is also the source of all of my thoughts of "death, attack
and murder" (3:1). My fear of death comes from my buried guilt. My
instinctive attacks on those around me are a defense mechanism I have
developed to fend off judgment for my "sins." My desires to take life from
others for myself (in the extreme, murder) come from the sense that
something is lacking in myself.

And all of these contribute to my perception of the world; they are the
reason why I see "sights of fear and sounds of battle" (2:1) everywhere. If
my mind were at peace, if I had forgiven myself, I would see the world
differently. I would see without these filters that distort my vision. I
would see the real world. All "such a mind" would see is "safety, love and
joy" (3:2).

Without guilt in my mind, "What is there it would choose to be condemned,
and what is there that it would judge against?" (3:3). Guilt in my mind has
driven me insane, and the insane world I see is the result of that guilt.
That is why the Holy Spirit "knows that all salvation is escape from guilt"
(T-14.III.13:4). If my mind had no guilt, it would see no guilt in the
world, because all the guilt I see is nothing but the projection of my own.
When I see someone as guilty today, when I would judge, let me remind
myself: "You never hate your brother for his sins, but only for your own"
(T-31.III.1:5). The problem I am seeing is not out there, in the world, but
within my own mind. Let me then turn to the Holy Spirit and ask His help in
removing guilt from my mind, that it may no longer block my perception of
the real world. Let my goal, today and every day, be to have "a mind at
peace within itself." From such a mind, free of guilt, the sight of the real
world will arise quite naturally, with no effort at all, for I will be
seeing clearly for the first time.





From sue at circleofa.org  Thu Oct 22 06:08:00 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:08:00 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] LESSON 296 - OCTOBER 23
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAADqxtwUs0wlHlxTMPXbDokgBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



LESSON 296 - OCTOBER 23

"The Holy Spirit speaks through me today."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS 

See complete Part II practice instructions in separate document.  
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

Practice suggestion: You may want to think of the people you expect to
interact with today, and with each one ask the Holy Spirit the following
questions:

     What would You say through me to [name]?
     How would You have me tell [name] that he/she is pure and holy as God
Himself?"

Quiet your mind. Try to clear it of any preconceptions. Listen deeply.
Repeat your questions if nothing comes at first. You may want to have pen
and paper in hand, and write down anything that comes to mind.

COMMENTARY

When I allow the Holy Spirit to <look through me> (yesterday's lesson),
sharing His perception, then He also <speaks through me>.

Not that I become God's gift to the world in the egoic sense, the oracle who
has the answer for all mankind. No, not that. But He does speak through me.
He speaks the word of welcome, of acknowledgment, of appreciation, and of
gratitude. Through me, the Holy Spirit communicates to my sisters and
brothers, "You are safe. You are whole. You are loved."

Having damned the world, now I would set it free. Having plastered everyone
with guilt, layering it on with a heavy hand, now I would lift that guilt
from everyone. Why grant this escape to all and sundry? Because I want it
for myself, and this is the only way to get it. If my brother dies guilty, I
die with him. What a tremendous privilege I have, to lift the guilt from
those around me, to let them know they are free!

Through me (and you) the Holy Spirit persuades the world to seek and find
the path to God. I am His representative on earth, an ambassador for the
Kingdom of God. To those who have not learned as yet to listen to His Voice
on their own, I represent Him, speaking His words, portraying His attitude
and His Love to every person I encounter. That is my function. That is my
only purpose. That is my life.

         I would be savior to the world I made. 
         For having damned it I would set it free.	(1:3-4)

Am I willing to become savior to my world? Some of the time I find myself
wanting to escape it, to just let it fall into ruins and be done with it.
The Course is clear on this point: I cannot fly off to Heaven myself and
leave the world behind. I cannot reach heaven without my brothers.

The weary feeling toward the world, the sense that "I am so bone-tired of
all of this mess," hides my own judgment on myself. Deeply guilty of my own
continued separation from the Father, I want to lay the blame on the world.
I want to be able to feel, "It is this tiresome place that keeps me from my
peace." Peace is here; peace is now. Peace, and Heaven itself, are in me,
with me wherever I go. I do not need to fly off, and nothing needs to
change.

"The Holy Spirit needs my voice today" (1:1). We live in a conspiracy of
silence. There are many, far more than we know, who have caught sight of
Heaven. We are among them. Yet we fear to speak because we fear people will
mock us, people will think we are crazy.

How often have we hungered, craved with a deep yearning, for someone who
would dare to say, in the midst of fear, suffering, loss, and terror, "I am
at peace. The peace of God is very real to me." Today, be the one to answer
another's yearning. "We teach.what we would learn" (2:1).

WHAT IS THE REAL WORLD?

Part 6: W-pII.8.3:4-5

When our mind has forgiven itself, it is "at peace within itself" (3:4), and
the world such a mind sees arises from that inner peace. As we have already
seen, inner peace without self-forgiveness is not possible. Likewise, seeing
a world of peace comes as we extend the peace within ourselves outward. We
had this stated clearly way back in Lesson 34:

          Peace of mind is clearly an internal matter. 
          It must begin with your own thoughts, and then extend outward. 
          It is from your peace of mind that a peaceful perception 
           of the world arises.	(W-pI.34.1:2-4)

A mind that has learned to forgive itself and be at peace "is kind, and only
kindness does it look upon" (3:5). I have heard several spiritual sages
remark that, if spirituality were to be boiled down to only two words, they
might be, "Be kind." I have encountered a number of people in my life who
set themselves up as very spiritual, perhaps as spiritual authorities, and
in the end the thing that led me to mistrust their claims was simply this:
They were not kind. I have detected this same tendency in myself as well! It
is far too easy to be caught up in being "spiritually correct" or being
right, and to lose sight of kindness.

When I have encountered the murderous ego in myself, and have learned to
forgive it; when I have discovered my own belief in my weakness and frailty,
and learned to forgive it; when I have foundered in doubt for years, and
learned to forgive it; when I have discovered how often I do not live up to
my own high standards, and learned to forgive it; when I have struggled with
my own stubborn unbelief, and learned to forgive it-then, I will be kind. I
have learned to be kind by being kind to myself. Let me engrave this lesson
on my heart: <The mind that has forgiven itself is kind, and only kindness
does it look upon>.

If I am quick to see danger lurking in those around me, and to question
another's kind intentions, it is most likely because I am quick to question
my own, and have not learned as yet to forgive myself.







From sue at circleofa.org  Fri Oct 23 05:34:57 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:34:57 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 297 - October 24
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAAB58OeBRbC1Kq+Fx0B7DlbsBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>




LESSON 297 - OCTOBER 24

"Forgiveness is the only gift I give."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS 

See complete Part II practice instructions in separate document.  
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

Practice suggestion: The opening lines of this lesson are pure gold. I find
them very powerful if used as a kind of practice. Here is how I have done
that. Pick a particular person in your life, especially someone important to
you, and apply the following to him/her:

     Forgiveness is the only gift I give,
       (Think of seeing past that person's flawed body and personality and
seeing the pure Son of God in him/her.)
     Because it is the only gift I want.
       (Think about the guilt you feel in this relationship, about how much
you want to feel forgiven for all your mistakes in the relationship.)
     And everything I give I give myself. 
       (Feel your gift of forgiveness returning to you. Let yourself feel
absolved from all your own mistakes in the relationship. See past your own
flaws to the pure Son of God in you.)

I highly recommend doing this practice every hour today. It will bring
wonderful benefits.

COMMENTARY

What do I want to have? Whatever it is, to give it is the way to have it.
And the more I grow, the more I realize that "Forgiveness..is the only gift
I want" (1:1).

What can I possibly want more than absolute freedom from the burden of
self-judgment? What can I possibly want besides this? To be free of
self-condemnation is to acknowledge my perfection and completion as God
created me. It is to recognize that nothing I have ever done, ever thought,
or ever said has ever diminished, even in the slightest, my value and
loveliness in God's sight.

If this is what I want, let me give it today, because "everything I give I
give to myself" (1:2). Let me extend this recognition to everyone I meet
today, that nothing they have ever done, ever thought, or ever said has ever
diminished, even in the slightest, their worth and value in my sight.

Every step in my salvation is already set (2:1). Nothing has been
overlooked. There is no need to be restless or anxious, concerned about
whether I will make it or when I will make it. I will. That is all I need to
know. It is accomplished already, and I can travel this illusory journey in
peace knowing that in reality it is already over.

WHAT IS THE REAL WORLD?

Part 7: W-pII.8.4:1

The real world is the symbol that the dream of sin and guilt is over, and
God's Son no longer sleeps.	(W-pII.8.4:1)

The world that is seen by a mind that is at peace, having forgiven itself,
is a symbol. A symbol represents something, or stands for something; it is
not the thing itself, but something that indicates it or pictures it. What
does the real world symbolize? "That the dream of sin and guilt is over, and
God's Son no longer sleeps."
The real world is a symbol telling us that our dream of sin and guilt is
already over, and in reality, we are already awake. The sight of the real
world is a sign to us that what perception sees is only a dream, and there
is a higher reality beyond it. When we see nothing to condemn, that sight is
telling us of a higher order of reality. When we perceive only safety, love,
and joy surrounding us, with no danger lurking anywhere, that perception is
communicating to us that we are not these bodies, nor does life have an end.
It is telling us that only love is real, and fear does not exist. Within the
illusion of perception, we are seeing something that speaks of an eternal
reality. What we see reminds us that we are not the dream. Our mind is
already awake, because: 
God creates only mind awake. He does not sleep, and His creations cannot
share what He gives not, nor make conditions which He does not share with
them.	(W-pI.167.8:1-2)

Mind exists only awake, because God created it awake. What He creates can't
be asleep if He did not give us that sleep. Nor can we make ourselves be
asleep. Therefore we must be already awake. That is what the real world
symbolizes to us. Within the illusion it speaks to us of our eternal
reality. Within the world, the perception of this symbol is our only goal.
Anything more than this takes us beyond the world of perception entirely.
Our ultimate destination <is> beyond this world. But although it is our
ultimate destination, what lies beyond perception is not our concern <now>.
Our work lies in the realm of perception: "Perception must be straightened
out before you can know anything" (T-3.III.1:2). "Instruction in perception
is your great need" (T-11.VIII.3:5).
We are engaged in the process of letting our perception be straightened out,
which is what forgiveness does. As we do this, we will see the real world
more clearly and more frequently, until it is all we see. And then our work
will be done, and God will reach down and take us home.

Forgiveness is the means by which I will recognize my innocence. It is the
reflection of God's Love on earth. It will bring me near enough to Heaven
that the Love of God can reach down to me and raise me up to Him.
(W-pI.60.1:4-6)

 




From sue at circleofa.org  Sun Oct 25 09:37:58 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Sun, 25 Oct 2009 09:37:58 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 298 - October 25
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAABRt6/juakdHhfMG2cCpFvsBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>




LESSON 298 - OCTOBER 25

"I love You, Father, and I love Your Son."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS 

See complete Part II practice instructions in separate document.  
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

COMMENTARY

"My gratitude permits my love to be accepted without fear" (1:1). It is
speaking here of my love for the Father and His Son. As the Course often
points out, in my wrong mind I am afraid of my own love for God and His Son,
because it seems that if I give in to it, I will lose myself in the infinity
of God. I <will> lose my "little self" in Him, but not my true Identity. It
is the false identity I am afraid of losing, and clinging to it, attempting
to preserve ego identification, makes me terrified of my own love of God.

"Gratitude" is what "permits my love to be accepted without fear." Gratitude
is simply the acceptance of and thankfulness for God's gifts: "I accept
instead what God establishes as mine" (1:5). When I let go of what I think I
made-the ego identity-and accept instead God's gift of my true Self, with
thanks, suddenly my love for God and for His Son is no longer terrifying.
All that makes it seem frightening are my vain attempts to make real what
never was real and to hold on to my separateness.

Deep in my heart, I love You, Father. I let go, even if only for an instant,
of what I have been trying to protect. I liberate my love, freeing it to
flow unhindered. I allow myself to feel its depth. So often it seems to me
that I do not love You; now, it is refreshing and cleansing to simply allow
that love free course, to acknowledge its presence within me. I have the
gift of my secure Identity in You; there is no need to protect a nonexistent
"something else."

Deep in my heart, Father, I also love Your Son, the Christ Who is my true
Self, and the shared Self of every living thing. I accept the Son as my
Self, and I accept my sisters and brothers as parts, with me, of that one
Self. Your Son is Your gift to me, and is me. So often it seems to me that I
do not love some aspects of the Son, some of those who seem to differ from
me, or who seem antagonistic to me. Now, in this moment, I acknowledge them
all with gratitude as parts of my Self. I am no longer, for this instant at
least, protecting this little fenced-off aspect I have known as "me." I
embrace them all with love.

I am so glad You describe the journey as going "through fear to meet my
Love" (1:5). Because there is fear. I feel frightened to let go of me. Who
will I be? What will be left? How wonderful to know that what I fear to lose
is not lost at all; it is expanded and uplifted into something far greater
than I have ever believed possible. When I have gone through fear, what I
meet is my Love. This, truly, is no sacrifice!

"I am grateful for...escape from everything that would obscure my love for
God my Father and His holy Son" (2:4).

WHAT IS THE REAL WORLD?

Part 8: W-pII.8.4:2-3

As we begin to perceive the real world, we are beginning to wake up. Perhaps
we have had some tiny glimpses of the real world. The Text refers to "a
little flicker of your eyelids, closed so long" (T-18.III.3:4); perhaps we
have known that much, at least. Each glimpse of the real world we experience
is a bit like the misty images of our bedroom as we hover between sleep and
wakefulness. Sometimes those images, flashed upon us as our eyes briefly
flick open, become integrated into a dream that is still going on. That is
what we are like. We are in that odd state halfway between sleeping and
waking. The Course refers to a borderland between the worlds, in which "you
are like to one who still hallucinates, but lacks conviction in what he
sees" (T-26.V.11:7).

"His waking eyes perceive the sure reflection of his Father's Love; the
certain promise that he is redeemed" (4:2). We are not yet wholly awake, but
we are waking. The sights of the real world reflect the Father's Love to us.
The new perceptions, given us by the Holy Spirit, bolster our confidence
that we are, indeed, redeemed.

The more we see the real world, the more we realize that the need for time
is over. "The real world signifies the end of time, for its perception makes
time purposeless" (4:3). The purpose of time for us is nothing more than to
perceive the real world. When we perceive it, there is no more need for time
because it has accomplished its purpose. In Review IV of the Workbook, we
are told that each time we pause to practice the lesson for the day, we are
"using time for its intended purpose" (W-pI.rIV.In.7:3). Each time we stop
and try to overcome an obstacle to peace, each time we let the mercy of God
come to us in forgiveness, we are using time for the only purpose it has.
"Time was made for this" (W-pI.193.10:4; see all of W-pI.193.10:1-5).

Let me, then, today, use time for its intended purpose. Let me remember the
lesson, morning and evening, and every hour in between, and often between
the hours. Let me cooperate willingly in the transformation of my
perceptions. Each time I sense a disturbance in my peace, let me turn
within, and seek the healing light of God. Let me realize that this is the
only thing time is for, and that there is no better way to spend it. Let me
seek to hasten the day when I will have no more need of time, when all my
perceptions have become united with the vision of Christ, and the real world
stands sparkling in beauty before my eyes.





From sue at circleofa.org  Sun Oct 25 17:00:02 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:00:02 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 299 - October 26
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAABoblnWNmTxIi/t1vq6JWLwBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



LESSON 299 - OCTOBER 26

"Eternal holiness abides in me."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS 

See complete instructions in separate document.  
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

Practice suggestion: This is another favorite prayer of mine. I recommend
praying it very slowly and intentionally, making it a genuine communication
from you to God. Expect Him to hear you. Let the prayer draw you into a
state of rest and quiet, in which you relax in the happy awareness that
nothing you can do can change your original holiness. Let it draw you into a
deep meditation, which will be far richer for having been introduced by this
lovely prayer.

COMMENTARY

This is the sort of lesson that always brings awareness of my split mind to
me. One part is sighing, blissfully, "Ah! How wonderful to know that God's
creation rests intact in me." The other part is looking around and over my
shoulder while saying, "You talkin' to me?"

Sometimes, Father, I can accept the idea that there is holiness in me. I
want to accept it more often, and more deeply. I want to know that holiness
is all that I am. I can relate to the first line, that "my holiness is far
beyond my own ability to understand or know" (1:1). At least the "beyond my
ability" part. Yet there is some part of me that knows the holiness is
there; perhaps unknown, perhaps not yet understood, but still...there.

When I am aware of my union with God; when I allow that realization to leak
through into my consciousness; then, together with Him, I know that it is
so, that holiness abides in me.

The Course belabors this point, repeating it so frequently that I have to
realize that there is enormous resistance in me to getting it: 

      My holiness...is not mine to be destroyed by sin. It is not mine to
suffer from attack. 
      Illusions can obscure it, but can not put out its radiance, nor dim
its light.	(2:1-4)

I can alter my behavior, I can hallucinate and believe I have changed my
essential nature, but I cannot in reality change what I am, I cannot change
what God created as me. My attack on myself didn't work, and never will. I
remain as God created me: the holy Son of God Himself. Anything which seems
to say otherwise is an illusion, a fabrication of my mind, desperately
striving to hold on to its ego identification. Guilt is such a fabrication.
No one who is holy could be guilty; therefore, if I am guilty I must not be
holy. This is how the ego mind tries to prove its reality to me.

This day, I affirm that my holiness is not of me (2:1). I'm not responsible
for creating it, nor can anything I do, think, or say affect it. God wills
that I know it and so it will be known. I lay my cynicism aside. I allow the
thought to lodge in my mind: 

       Eternal holiness abides in me.

WHAT IS THE REAL WORLD?

Part 9: W-pII.8.5:1-2

Once time has served the purpose of the Holy Spirit, He has no more need for
it. But it is up to us whose purpose time serves. Two sections in the Text
discuss the two uses of time: Chapter 13, section IV, "The Function of
Time," and Chapter 15, section I, "The Two Uses of Time." These sections
tell us, in sum, that we can use time for the ego or for the Holy Spirit.
The ego uses time to perpetuate itself through seeking our death. It sees
the purpose of time as destruction. The Holy Spirit sees time's purpose as
healing.

      The ego, like the Holy Spirit, uses time to convince you of the
inevitability of 
      the goal and end of teaching. To the ego the end is death, which is
its end. 
      But to the Holy Spirit the goal is life, which <has> no end.
(T-15.I.2:7-9)

We are asked to "begin to practice the Holy Spirit's use of time as a
teaching aid to happiness and peace" (T-15.I.9:4), and we do this by
practicing the holy instant. "Time is your friend, if you leave it to the
Holy Spirit to use" (T-15.I.15:1). There is a need for time while we are
still learning to use it only for His purposes, to take the present moment,
letting past and future go, and seek peace within the holy instant.

Each day should be devoted to miracles. The purpose of time is to enable you
to learn how to use time constructively. It is thus a teaching device and a
means to an end. Time will cease when it is no longer useful in facilitating
learning.	(T-1.I.15:1-4)

Sentence 2 starts with the word "now." That "now" refers to the point at
which time has served its purpose. There is nothing more to be done, nothing
for Him to teach us, nothing for us to learn or to do, except to wait "for
God to take His final step." Time continues briefly, allowing us a short
while to appreciate the real world, and then time and perception disappear.
This "last step" is something referred to quite often in the Course; the
phrase "last step" or "final step" occurs twenty-nine times (see, for
instance, T-6.V(C).5 and T-7.I). It represents the transition out of
perception (duality) and into knowledge (unity), out of the world and into
Heaven, out of the body and into spirit. Every time it is very clear that
this is something accomplished by God alone; we have nothing to do with it.
Our only part is preparing ourselves for it, cleaning up our perception
until all of it is "true perception," free from fear. Or as it was put in
the longer quotation above, "Each day should be devoted to miracles." That
is all that time is for.
 





From sue at circleofa.org  Mon Oct 26 05:45:01 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:45:01 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 300 - October 27
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAAK26f1WOHdlGk01Rr2T5MswBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



LESSON 300 - OCTOBER 27

"Only an instant does this world endure."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS 

See complete instructions in separate document.  
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

Practice suggestion: As an additional exercise, think of some inner pattern
of yours which you wish was gone, or some outer difficulty which you would
like to see vanish. Imagine the thing you choose appearing as a cloud in the
sky. Note how the cloud looks, what its shape, size, and color are. Then
repeat:

     Only an instant does this _______ endure.
     Let me see beyond that tiny instant to eternity.
     Then imagine the cloud vanishing.

COMMENTARY

What a great lesson with which to end a series of ten days in which we have
been thinking on the section "What Is the Real World?" The thought here is
the flip side of the holy instant. This world is nothing but the unholy
instant. Only two instants exist, and we are in one or the other all the
time.

The idea for today could be taken negatively, with a focus on the transitory
nature of life, "a brief candle," as Shakespeare called it, where our "joys
are gone before they are possessed" (1:1). On the other hand, the brevity of
this world's existence can be a very encouraging thought! "Yet this is also
the idea that lets no false perception keep us in its hold, nor represent
more than a passing cloud upon a sky eternally serene" (1:2).

The hallucination that is this world is nothing more than a passing cloud
that is crossing the serenity of our right mind. Our false perceptions will
endure no more than an instant, and then they will be gone. Like a child on
a long automobile trip, "soon" can seem to us to be forever, but our Father
knows the end is certain. The clouds of false perception will dissipate, the
sun will come out again, having been hidden only for an instant. Our minds
will recognize their own serenity once more.

      It is this serenity we seek, unclouded, obvious and sure, today.
(1:3) 

Let me, then, seek that serenity. Let me seek it now, and every time today I
can remember to do so. Let me open myself to that holy instant, and remember
that beyond the clouds that seem to darken my mind, the sun shines
uninterrupted. Let me be glad and grateful that "the world endures but for
an instant" (2:4). Let me "go beyond that tiny instant to eternity" (2:5).
Let me do so <now>. Let me reach to that other state of mind often today.

WHAT IS THE REAL WORLD?

Part 10: W-pII.8.5:3-4

"That instant," the instant in which God takes His final step (5:2), "is our
goal, for it contains the memory of God" (5:3). An analogy that comes to my
mind is that of a football team trying to win the Super Bowl. The "final
step" is the awarding of the trophy, so to speak. That is the team's
ultimate goal. But they actually have nothing to do with the trophy; their
part is to win games and arrive at that moment in victory. The trophy then
is given to them by the officials of the NFL. Although the image of striving
for a victory over opponents does not really fit our attaining the real
world, the general idea does. Our part is only getting to the place (the
real world) in which the awarding of the trophy (the memory of God) is
possible, but that last step is taken by God Himself. We are not learning to
remember God. We are learning to forget everything that makes that memory
impossible, to remove all the false learning we have interposed between our
minds and the truth. When we have removed the barriers, with the help of the
Holy Spirit, the memory of God will return to us of itself.

"And as we look upon a world forgiven" (that is the outcome of the work we
have done with the Holy Spirit, learning to forgive), "it is He Who calls to
us and comes to take us home" (God is the One Who takes us on this final
step beyond the real world), "reminding us of our Identity Which our
forgiveness has restored to us" (5:4). When we have forgiven the world, the
memory of God is restored to us, and also the memory of our own Identity in
Him. This latter part is not something we do; "it is He Who...comes to take
us home."

This is not just an interesting theological point. It has practical
implications. Sometimes, once we have entered on a spiritual quest, the ego
can distract us by getting us to try to go directly to God. We can get
caught up in a struggle to try to remember God, to try to recall our
Identity as the Son of God. Although this is our ultimate goal (like the
trophy in the Super Bowl game), if we make it the object of our direct
efforts, we will never get there. That would be like setting out to steal
the trophy instead of winning it legitimately. Our attention needs to be
focused on doing that which, if done, will prepare us to receive the memory
of God from His own hand. Namely, forgiveness. If we make remembering God,
or our Identity, our immediate goal, we are really trying to bypass the
steps that are necessary to reach that goal. We cannot skip those steps:

I will forgive, and this will disappear.

To every apprehension, every care and every form of suffering, repeat these
selfsame words. And then you hold the key that opens Heaven's gate, and
brings the Love of God the Father down to earth at last, to raise it up to
Heaven. God will take this final step Himself. Do not deny the little steps
He asks you take to Him.	(W-pI.193.13:3-7)






From sue at circleofa.org  Mon Oct 26 05:46:12 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:46:12 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] [RESEND] Part II Practice instructions
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAAOjdRx7hwchGogZkXSXAu6ABAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>




Part II Practice instructions

PURPOSE: The introduction to Part II talks as if, in the remaining part of
this year, we are trying to reach the end of our spiritual journey: "This
year has brought us to eternity" (10:8). However, the Manual, in Section 16
("How Should the Teacher of God Spend His Day?") implies a more modest goal:
to reach a place where we practice because of our own motivation and
inspiration, rather than because a book is telling us to. This would
transform our practicing from a special assignment into a way of life. Part
II of the Workbook, with its absence of daily practice instructions, is an
important step in this direction. If here, in the relatively formless
landscape of Part II, your practice can blossom, rather than wither, you are
close to graduating from the Workbook.

I think we need to combine these two goals: We should aim for eternity,
realizing that by aiming high we will carry ourselves farther than if we
didn't, even though we may only get as far as weaning ourselves from the
Workbook's support. In other words, we should aim to graduate from time and
space, <so that> we can reach the more realistic goal of graduating from the
Workbook.

Reading the lesson: The lessons in Part II take a very different form than
in Part I. After the day's idea, we find just two paragraphs, both worded in
the first person, which expand and comment on the idea. This makes the Part
II lessons look much like what we see in most of the reviews, where the idea
for the day is followed by a series of "related comments" (W-pI.rI.In.2:3;
3:3) which are worded in the first person and expand on the idea. In the
reviews, these related comments become part of the exercises. We read them
over several times, we think about them, we repeat them to ourselves, we
savor each word. We make them our own, which is why they are worded <as if>
they are our own. We so fully engage them that reading them becomes more
like a practice than a simple act of reading.

It makes sense that we should use the comments in the Part II lessons in the
same way that we used the comments in the reviews, simply because the two
are so similar. And the introduction hints at this. For it speaks of our
reading of those paragraphs as an "exercise" (2:1) that is meant to induct
us (1:4) into "the periods of wordless, deep experience which should come
afterwards" (11:2). Let's look at how we can turn the reading of those two
paragraphs into a genuine exercise.

First, the< commentary paragraphs> (the nonitalicized paragraphs). I
recommend that you read these over slowly, perhaps several times, and
imagine that these really are your own thoughts (which is how they are
worded). To facilitate this, you may want to emphasize words like "I," "me,"
"my," and "mine."

Second, the< prayers>. These read as if you yourself are praying them to
God, and I recommend doing just that. Fix one sentence at a time in your
mind and then close your eyes and say that sentence to God. Try to really
mean it and expect Him to hear you. These appear to be designed to carry you
into the meditative state, and many of them virtually say that. Lesson 307
says of its prayer, "And with this prayer we enter silently into a state
where conflict cannot come" (W-pII.307.2:1). To enhance this effect, you may
want to pray the prayer several times.

Morning/evening quiet time: As long as you need for the effect you want.

The longer practice periods are meant to consist of Open Mind Meditation.
Begin by repeating the idea for the day, but in a special way: as an
invitation to God to come to you. "We say the words of invitation that His
Voice suggests, and then we wait for Him to come to us" (4:6). After
repeating these words, go into a time of expectant, wordless waiting (the
word "wait" here occurs six times). To wait normally means to stay
physically still in anticipation of some event. Here it means to stay
<mentally> still in anticipation of a wondrous event: the dawning of God on
your mind. Wait as if holding your breath for this event. Wait with an
attitude that "the memory of God is shimmering across the wide horizons of
our minds" (9:5). Your waiting, then, though motionless, should be very much
alive. It should be filled with expectancy: "We...expect our Father to
reveal Himself, as He has promised" (3:3). The basis for your expectancy, in
other words, is your trust that God will keep His promises. He promised to
come to you when you asked. You are asking; He will come. Hold this state
without the aid of repeating words. However, whenever your mind wanders, you
should use words--repeat the idea to draw yourself back to this nonverbal
waiting. "We will use that thought...to calm our minds at need" (3:1).

If you find Open Mind Meditation either too challenging or too unrewarding,
I would recommend using either of the other two methods the Workbook has
taught: Down-and-Inward Meditation or Name of God Meditation. In fact,
Lesson 222 clearly instructs you to use Name of God Meditation: <"Father, we
have no words except Your Name upon our lips and in our minds, as we come
quietly into Your Presence now"> (W-pII.222.2:1).

Hourly remembrance: One or two minutes as the hour strikes (reduce if
circumstances do not permit).

Do a miniature version of the morning practice. Repeat the idea as an
invitation to God, and then wait in wordless silence for Him to come to you.

Frequent reminder: As often as possible within each hour.

"Repeat [the idea], and allow your mind to rest a little time in silence and
in peace" (W-pI.rIII.In.10:5).

Response to temptation: When you are tempted to let upset cause you to
forget your goal.

Repeat the idea as a way of calling on God to dispel your upset (see 2:9 and
10:2).

Reading the "What Is" section: Before one of the day's practice periods (not
necessarily the morning one), read the relevant "What Is" section. Don't
just read it casually. Read it slowly and think about it "a little while"
(11:4).

* * *

LET US PRAY

What are we supposed to do with the prayers in Part II of the Workbook for
<A Course in Miracles>? There are 140 of them, one for each lesson. This has
puzzled many a Course student who, upon reaching Part II, finds himself
confronted each day with an italicized prayer directed at God. Is this
prayer offered by the author of the Course on our behalf? Do we simply read
it? Do we actually pray it? If so, why?

Actually, I am only <assuming> that this issue has puzzled Course students.
I have never really heard much discussion about these prayers. They sit
there on the page, staring at us every day for five straight months, but we
don't seem to talk much about them. The only perspective I recall hearing is
that they must be metaphorical because God can't hear our prayers.

Having done the Workbook several times, I too didn't know what to do with
these prayers. Yet, to be honest, I hadn't really confronted the question. I
would just dutifully open my book and read the prayer attached to that day's
lesson. The prayers generally struck me as being a kind of Course word
salad: a series of typical Course words--Christ, peace, joy, Heaven,
etc.--tossed together as one would toss a salad.

Then one day a few years ago, all that changed for me. I was on a short
retreat and, for some reason, the first thing I did was sit down and try to
discover what the Course wants us to do with its prayers. Having spent many
years studying the Workbook's practice instructions, I had learned that
virtually all our questions about practice are answered right in the
Workbook, if we pay careful attention. Now, for the first time, it occurred
to me that this ought to be true for those prayers; we should expect there
to be instructions for what to do with them.

The logical place for those instructions was the introduction to Part II,
since that is where we find the practice instructions for the entirety of
Part II, where the prayers are found. Within minutes I found two sentences
that ended my search and changed my relationship with the Course and with
God. Here they are:

We say some simple words of welcome, and expect our Father to reveal
Himself, as He has promised. (WpII.In.3:3)

We say the words of invitation that His Voice suggests, and then we wait for
Him to come to us. (WpII.In.4:6)

>From these sentences and the paragraphs around them I obtained the following
picture:

The Course has given us words (from the Holy Spirit) which we are to say to
God as words of invitation and welcome. Once we invite Him with these words,
we sit in a state of silent expectancy, waiting for Him to come and reveal
Himself to us in direct wordless experience.

What are these "words"? In this context, they are definitely the thought for
the day, the lesson title. But are they confined to that? Don't these
"simple words of welcome" also sound like they could be the prayers? After
all, like these words, the prayers are words given us by the Course which
are written as if we are saying them to God.

So I turned the page and looked at the first prayers in Part II. They
resoundingly confirmed what I was thinking. This is how the first prayer
begins:

<Father, I come to You today to seek the peace that You alone can give. I
come in silence>. (W-pII.221.1:1-2)

Just as the introduction described, in this prayer we state our intention to
have an encounter with God in the silence of our minds. The comments that
follow this prayer continue along the same lines: "Now [that we have said
this prayer] do we wait in quiet....We wait with one intent...[for God] to
reveal Himself unto His Son" (W-pII.221.2:1, 6). Here is exactly what the
introduction said: Once we say these words of welcome, we wait in silence
for God to reveal Himself to us.

The next prayer was very similar. In it we state our intention to silently
enter into an experience of God's Presence:

<Father, we have no words except Your Name upon our lips and in our minds,
as we come quietly into Your Presence now, and ask to rest with You in peace
a while>. (W-pII.222.2:1)

This was a very intellectual process of detective work, but its results were
extremely practical: At last I felt I knew what to do with those prayers! I
am to say them directly to God as preparation for a direct wordless
encounter with Him.

So I immediately tried this out. I spent the next hour or so going through
the first twenty prayers in Part II, praying them as I had just discovered I
should. I will never forget that time. It was a pivotal moment in my journey
with the Course. Until that moment, I had no idea how much richness was in
those prayers. What seemed like word salad when read as information became a
wealth of emotional experience when repeated as prayer, when spoken to God.

I was astonished by the sense of loving intimacy with God that shone through
these prayers. I had never realized that <this> was how the Course wanted me
to think about God. God came across not as a remote metaphysical
abstraction, an impersonal essence that is completely unaware of us.
Instead, He came across as near and dear, as the most attentive, loving
Father one could possibly imagine, always there, always listening, always
answering, wanting only to lavish all of His Love upon us. "He covers me
with kindness and with care" (W-pII.222.1:4), one of the lessons said. And
that is exactly how I felt, blanketed in His kindness and care.

Since that day, these prayers have become a staple in my daily life. There
are few things I enjoy doing more than sitting down and spending time with
them. They have literally transformed my relationship with God. My sense of
God before was somewhat remote and abstract. Yet increasingly these prayers
have implanted in me <their> sense of God, so that my feeling for Him has
become a deep well of sustenance and comfort that I draw from daily.

As time went on, I fell into the habit of using these prayers before my
meditation time, because I found them to be the ideal way to prepare my mind
for seeking God in meditation. They gathered the scattered and chaotic
threads of my thought into a single desire to be with God. After I had been
using them in this way for some time, I remembered something: <This is
exactly what they are for>. This is what the instructions in the Workbook
say is their purpose. We are to use the words of these prayers to prepare
our minds for a direct, wordless encounter with God. I can attest to the
fact that they serve their intended purpose very well indeed.

I therefore encourage every student of the Course to avail him- or herself
of the great benefit of these prayers. Try them out and see if you are not
drawn to return to them. Here are some tips for getting the most out of
them:

1. <Focus on one line at a time>. Dwell on each line and let it sink in
before going on to the next.

2. <Say it directly to God>. When the prayer says "Father," have a sense of
speaking directly to God, and of Him in some sense hearing you.

3. <Make it from you>. When the prayer says "I" or "me," have a sense of you
being the one saying the prayer.

4. <Mean it>, as much as you can. Try to make it the prayer of your own
heart.

5. <Make it specific>. For instance, when the prayer we will use below says
"a something I have called by many names," list some of the names you have
given what you seek.

6. <Feel free to elaborate> on the prayer as it evokes additional thoughts
and feelings in you.

To try out this method of using these prayers, I would like to utilize the
following prayer from Lesson 231, "Father, I will but to remember You." My
suggestion is for you to repeat each line slowly, with concentration and
sincerity. Try to see the fullness of meaning contained in each line. Try
also to go through the prayer twice or more.

1. What can I seek for, Father, but Your Love?

2. Perhaps I think I seek for something else; a something I have called by
many names.

3. Yet is Your Love the only thing I seek, or ever sought.

4. For there is nothing else that I could ever really want to find.

5. Let me remember You.

6. What else could I desire but the truth about myself?

What was your experience in repeating these lines? Was it an experience you
want more of? I sincerely hope that the prayers in the Workbook will become
the blessing in your life that they continue to be in mine.





From sue at circleofa.org  Tue Oct 27 06:16:06 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:16:06 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 301 - October 28
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAAE5X6L6YTcNMq+RUE6GVBnIBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>



LESSON 301 - OCTOBER 28

"And God Himself shall wipe away all tears."

Practice instructions 

See complete instructions in a separate document. 
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

Practice suggestion: To make this lesson more personally meaningful, I have
used it in a more specific form. First, pick someone whom you are judging.
Then repeat:
     
     And God Himself shall wipe away all tears
     By giving me His world,
     Which I will see when I cease to judge [name].

Commentary

The title of this lesson is a quote from the Book of Revelation in the
Bible, verses 7:17 and 21:4. We've all shed tears in our lives, some more
than others. Back in the days when I believed in hell I used to wonder how
God could wipe away my tears when people I knew and loved were in eternal
torment. I used to wonder how God could be happy if most of His creatures
got snatched by the devil. I guess wondering about that is part of why I
don't believe in that stuff any more.

But how <can> God wipe away all our tears? When we look around with our
"normal" (i.e., distorted by the ego) perception, it seems impossible not to
shed at least some tears over the suffering and unfairness of life and
death. The Course's answer is that we will not be looking around with that
kind of perception at all; we will be looking with a new kind of vision.

"Unless I judge I cannot weep" (1:1). How will He wipe away our tears? By
removing all judgment from our minds.

We look on the world and we judge it. We judge it to be unfair, unjust, and
unfriendly. We judge some to be victimizers and others the victims. Most of
all, we judge it all to be <real>. If sin and suffering are real in the
final analysis, then tears are inevitable. "But we have learned the world we
saw was false" (2:4). Not real, but false. It is an illusion I have
projected; it exists only in my mind. I cannot blame my suffering on it
because the only one who has attacked myself is me. The only one who has
been unjust is me. I am seeing in the world a reflection of what I believe I
have done in relation to God and my brothers, and nothing more than that.
When I learn to forgive the world, and to accept Atonement for myself, I
will no longer see the world this way.

Jesus is speaking, it seems to me, from a high place, and he is including me
in that place. I'm not aware of having learned the unreality of the world
yet; the world still seems pretty real to me, and I still weep. The Course
assures us that a part of our mind-the only part that has reality in
truth-is already awake, and already wholly knows that the world we see is
false. Jesus symbolizes that part of our minds that is awake.

This, however, I do know, based on the promises of the Course: I will see
the world this way. There will come a time when 

     I cannot weep. Nor can I suffer pain, or feel I am abandoned and
unneeded in the world.	(1:1-2) 

I can see it that way at any time I choose, in the holy instant, and I am
learning to allow my perception to be transformed in accord with that
vision, more and more each day.

If it seems hypocritical to repeat the prayer in today's lesson, saying, "We
have learned the world we saw was false" (2:4), reconsider that opinion. You
may say, "But I don't believe it, I haven't really learned that; how can I
say it?" <Of course> you don't believe it! That is exactly why you are doing
the lesson. If you believed it you wouldn't need the lesson. Just for an
instant, suspend your disbelief. Let yourself imagine how it would feel to
know that all the ugliness of the world simply isn't real, that it was
nothing but a bad dream, an ugly acid trip, and that nothing really
happened, nothing really was lost, and nobody was really hurt. Only the
projected images died; the reality of life was totally unaffected by the
dream. Let yourself slip, just for a moment, into that state of mind. Those
little instants will be enough to take you all the way home.

WHAT IS THE SECOND COMING?

Part 1: W-pII.9.1:1-2

The Course's understanding of the Second Coming differs drastically from the
teaching of most orthodox Christian churches. Typically, the term refers to
a second physical appearance by Jesus, returning (usually in a supernatural
way, "in clouds of glory") to be judge and ruler of the world. This section
of the Workbook redefines the term completely. (The Course is notable for
the way it redefines and gives new content to nearly every major Christian
term it uses.) Here, the Second Coming is:

1. The correction of mistakes (1:1)

Instead of being a cataclysmic event that overthrows the devil in the battle
of Armageddon, the Second Coming is a gentle correction of our mistaken
beliefs in the reality of sin and separation. The old view of the Second
Coming saw evil as a real force with a terrible energy of its own, a will in
opposition to God, a will which had to be combated and overcome. The Course,
in seeing the Second Coming as the correction of mistakes, does not see evil
as a real force. Darkness is not a <thing>, a substance, it is merely the
absence of light. So evil, in the thought of the Course, is not an opposite
to God, but merely a mistake, merely the incorrect idea that an opposite to
God could exist. The Second Coming, then, is simply the correction of that
mistaken idea. Nothing needs to be overcome or overthrown. The Second Coming
simply "restores the never lost, and re-establishes what is forever and
forever true" (1:2).

2. The return of sanity (1:1)

All minds that have harbored the insane notion of separation from God will
be healed of their delusions. The Second Coming, in the terminology of the
Course, is a corporate event at the end of time. It is the moment when each
aspect of the mind of God's Son, which has, in insanity, believed itself to
be a separate being, is fully restored to its awareness of oneness with all
the other aspects of the one mind. This corporate aspect is shown by phrases
later in this section: "the time in which <all> minds are given to the hands
of Christ" (3:2); "the Sons of God acknowledge that they all are one" (4:3;
my emphasis in both quotes). As long as any part of the one mind is not
healed, Christ's wholeness is not manifest. The "return to sanity" speaks of
the entire Sonship being restored to the awareness of its oneness.

This "wholeness" aspect of the message of the Course is the motivation for
each of us to reach out in healing to the world. Without our brothers we
cannot fully know our Identity, for they all are part of It. My brother's
healing is my own. No one can be excluded from the circle of Atonement. No
one is excluded.

     You are God's Son, one Self, with one Creator and one goal; 
     to bring awareness of this oneness to all minds, 
     that true creation may extend the Allness and the Unity of God.
(W-pI.95.12:2)






From sue at circleofa.org  Wed Oct 28 05:37:07 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:37:07 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 302 - October 29
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAAEK8y7zESTJFkWN0Moplb+IBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>




LESSON 302 - OCTOBER 29

"Where darkness was I look upon the light."

Practice instructions 

See complete instructions in a separate document.
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

Commentary

This is the change that a shift in perception brings. Where we saw darkness
we now see light. What appeared as attack becomes a call for love. Insanity
in a brother becomes an opportunity to bless. Stones we stumbled over become
stepping stones. All things become lessons God would have us learn. The
light is always there, but we saw darkness. "Now we see that darkness is our
own imagining, and light is there for us to look upon" (1:5).

Perhaps today I can find one thing that seems dark and remember to say,
"Where I see darkness, I choose to see the light." Perhaps I can remember to
look for love instead of condemnation and judgment. Perhaps I can look on
something that seems like a curse and learn to count it as a blessing. Let
me begin in small increments, and in lessons close to home. It may be beyond
me now to look on global disasters and see light in them, but I can begin
with things closer to home: my disturbed plans, the intrusive friend, the
withdrawing spouse. "Let me forgive Your holy world today, that I may look
upon its holiness and understand it but reflects my own" (1:7).

We are not alone as we travel this road.

     Our Love awaits us as we go to Him, and walks beside us showing us the
way. 
     He fails in nothing. He is the end we seek, and He the means by which
we go to Him.	(2:1-3)

"Our Love," to me, means the Christ. To me, and perhaps to others of you, He
is symbolized by Jesus. Perhaps you think of Him as your higher Self. He is
both the means and the end of our journey. He waits at the end, calling us
toward Him, and yet He also walks alongside of us, instructing us, guiding
us, and empowering us as we travel. Let us be grateful today for His help,
and aware of it as we go through the day.

WHAT IS THE SECOND COMING?

Part 2: W-pII.9.1:3

It is the invitation to God's Word to take illusion's place; the willingness
to let forgiveness rest upon all things without exception and without
reserve.

We are continuing from Part 1 the list of descriptions of the Second Coming:

3. The invitation to God's Word to take illusion's place.

This is the Course's vision of how the world and time end. The real world
precedes the Second Coming. Individually and collectively our perception is
purified, so that we see Heaven's reflection. When all our minds have come
into agreement on this perception, that is the Second Coming. This is "part
of the condition that restores the never lost" (1:2). The purification of
our perception, and the joining of our minds in that perception, "is the
invitation to God's Word to take illusion's place" (1:3). Our mistaken
perceptions have been corrected; our minds have united in sanity. Now the
way is open for God to take His last step.

4. Willingness for total forgiveness

Of what does this united perception consist? "The willingness to let
forgiveness rest upon all things without exception and without reserve"
(1:3). In other words, a willingness to not see sin, but to see the perfect
creation of God everywhere. Note that all four of these definitions refer to
the undoing of mistakes our minds have made, not to outward change. If the
mind is healed, of course the world will change, since it is only the mirror
of our state of mind.

The forgiveness spoken of here is the final state of mind in which we have
forgiven:
     * <all things>; every person, every condition, God, ourselves
     * <without exception>; nothing and no one whatsoever excluded
     * <and without reserve>; wholeheartedly, exuberantly, joyously

The Second Coming is the event in time when forgiveness becomes total. No
condemnation and no judgment remains in any mind.






From sue at circleofa.org  Thu Oct 29 06:03:41 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2009 06:03:41 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 304 - October
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAABiZxwf9m8NLrf5+dXoit/0BAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>





LESSON 304 - OCTOBER 31

"Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS 

See complete instructions in a separate document.
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

COMMENTARY

"My world" is, of course, the world I made to support my ego; the illusory
world of attack and separation. The sight of Christ, or the vision of Christ
as it is mostly called in the Text, is a faculty that is native to all of
us, part of our created Being. Christ's vision shows us reality and oneness,
not the fragmented chaos we usually see with our eyes. This sight is always
available to us, but the world we made "can obscure [our] holy sight" (1:1).
So today's thought is a prayer, or a resolution, not to allow that to
happen, not to let what our eyes show us prevent our seeing what the vision
of Christ can show us all the time and any time-namely, the real world.

     Perception is a mirror, not a fact. And what I look on is my state of
mind, 
     reflected outward.	(1:3-4) 

The same thought is repeated throughout the Course:

     Perception can make whatever picture the mind desires to see. 
     Remember this.	(M-19.5:2-3)

     The world you see is what you gave it, nothing more than that..It is
the witness 
     to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition.
(T-21.In.1:2, 5)

The world, then, is only showing us our own minds. Nothing more nor less
than our own projections obscure the sight of Christ. Christ is the only
reality, the creation of God, and without our superimposed projections this
reality is all we would see. But we cannot use our perception to see it;
instead, we must use the vision of Christ, a wholly separate faculty or
sense (1:2). We need to let the sight of the world fade from our minds; this
is why closing our eyes can be helpful at first, when what our eyes show us
seems so solid and real.

What we see is determined by what we want to see. Therefore, we are given
these words to say: "I would [i.e., I will to] bless the world by looking on
it through the eyes of Christ" (1:5). Our perception can become true
perception, which sees the world as a reflection of the truth instead of
being a mirror of our projections, if truth is what we want to see. "When
you want only love you will see nothing else" (T-12.VII.8:1).

Today I want to tune in to my natural, God-given desire to bless the world.
I want to draw upon that will to bless, which is always in me, and use it to
transform my perception of the world around me. I want to see the world as a
mirror reflecting the fact that "all my sins have been forgiven me" (1:6). I
will see that when I see all the world as forgiven. "Let me forgive, and
thus receive salvation for the world" (2:2). This is a gift given me by God
that I can offer to His holy Son, of which every person I meet or even think
of today is a part. As I forgive those around me, which is my mission today,
they will be helped to once again find the memory of God, and of the Christ
as their own Self (2:3).

WHAT IS THE SECOND COMING?

Part 4: W-pII.9.2:3-4

We are continuing from Part 2 the list of descriptions of the Second Coming:

5. The recognition of perfect oneness

The Second Coming is the recognition of our perfect oneness: 

     Forgiveness lights the Second Coming's way, because it shines on
everything as one. 
     And thus is oneness recognized at last.	(2:3-4) 

With perfect forgiveness all barriers, all apparent reasons for separation,
vanish, and our oneness can be "recognized at last."

Every unforgiveness is a reason for separation, a justification for holding
ourselves apart. Conversely, every reason for holding ourselves apart is an
unforgiveness, a judgment against another. In order to prepare the way for
the Second Coming of Christ, which is the recognition of oneness,
forgiveness must first become complete. Many of us may remember the song
from the musical <Godspell>, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord," if we don't
remember it from the Bible as the message of John the Baptist prior to the
commencement of Jesus' ministry. Well, forgiveness is how we prepare the way
of the Lord, in regard to the Second Coming of Christ. Forgiveness "lights
the Second Coming's way." It removes the barriers to our awareness of
oneness.





From sue at circleofa.org  Thu Oct 29 06:04:58 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2009 06:04:58 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] Lesson 304 Extra Thoughts - Seeing Beyond the
	Good Illusions
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAAJvq/1vvMY1BrmOekDcmmbcBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>




Seeing Beyond the Good Illusions

Extra Thoughts on Lesson 304


This is an "extra" for Lesson 304, some thoughts I wrote some time ago when
reading this lesson. They branch off from the lesson itself to comment on
related portions of the Text. As with all my commentaries, some parts are
purely my own opinion, reflections on the Course rather than an
interpretation of it; if you do not agree with all I say, just disregard the
parts you don't like!


     "Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ."

"Perception is a mirror, not a fact" (1:3). We never see the truth, we
always perceive symbols of the truth, and it is our mind that gives those
symbols meaning. The signals reach our brain and a mental filter is applied,
based on fear or based on love, and whatever is in my mind, that is what I
perceive. This is why "what I look upon is my state of mind, reflected
outward" (1:4).

The function of a teacher of God is just to go around reminding everyone, in
every way possible, of who they really are. He reminds them of God, and of
their Self as God created it. When his brother is deceived and operating
from an illusion of himself, he does not attack the illusion or seek to
change the behavior, but rather he acts in whatever way he can to deny his
brother's denial of his Self, and to remind him of who he really is.

Seeing the real world is not difficult. We already have the vision of
Christ. The problem is, we obscure it, overlaying it with our own ego
interpretations. We superimpose our filter of fear on perception and block
out the vision of Christ, replacing it with our view of the world. To see
the real world, what we need to do is to withdraw our support from the ego's
perceptions. We need to stop thinking that perception is a fact, and realize
it is only the projection of our own thoughts. The world is not really the
way we think it is.

This is why, in the Text, we are told this:

     Sit quietly and look upon the world you see, and tell yourself: 
     "The real world is not like this. It has no buildings and there are no 
     streets where people walk alone and separate. There are no stores where

     people buy an endless list of things they do not need. It is not lit 
     with artificial light, and night comes not upon it. There is no day
that 
     brightens and grows dim. There is no loss. Nothing is there but shines,
and shines forever.

     The world you see must be denied, for sight of it is costing you a
different 
     kind of vision. <You cannot see both worlds>, for each of them involves

     a different kind of seeing, and depends on what you cherish. 
     The sight of one is possible because you have denied the other.
(T-13.VII.1:1-2:3)

This is more than just a different way of looking at the physical world. It
is looking beyond the physical world entirely. It is literally denying that
the physical world exists at all! No buildings. No streets. No stores. No
day. No night. This is pretty far-reaching denial!

The Course is saying that the entire physical world is like a vast hologram
that we have superimposed over what is really there. We see the physical
world because we have denied the real world. Therefore, to see the real
world, we must deny the physical. "The sight of it is costing you a
different kind of vision."

A woman in our study group in New Jersey said she had trouble with the idea
of not seeing the physical world. "There are wonderful things in it that I
value: the fall foliage, the mountains, the music of Bach. I don't want to
lose those."

I would say that, yes, indeed, you have to let those go as well, and deny
their reality. The thing to see is that it is not the colored leaves you
value, nor the sound of music. The real value is in the experience you have
when you see or hear them, the sense of oneness, the peacefulness, the joy,
the appreciation of beauty. That value lies not in the things, but in you.
We have learned to associate our experiences of love and joy with certain
things and certain people. The association is wholly within our own mind. In
the real world, everything is associated with that experience! "Nothing is
there but shines, and shines forever" (T-13.VII.1:7).

We don't really want more fall foliage, more good music, more trips to the
mountains. We want God, we want the experience of Him that we have
associated with those things. We want the feeling of wholeness, of
well-being, of self-completion that we have falsely learned to associate
with certain things in our lives. That is always what we really want, and
the only thing we truly want.

On the way to fully understanding that, it becomes necessary to deny the
reality of even the good things of life. As the phrase from earlier in the
Workbook has it, "This is not a part of what I want" (W-pI.130.11:5). The
fall foliage is not a part of what I want. This romantic special
relationship is not a part of what I want. It is a breaking of the mental
associations that we have made, undoing the linking of the experience of God
to the physical context in which we had the experience. The physical did not
give us that experience; it came about wholly in our mind.

I am not saying that while we are in the world we should deny ourselves
these physical pleasures. What I am saying is that we can learn that the
experiences of God we have had are not limited to those things! Everything
and everyone offers us the same experience. By saying that certain things
have the power to give us that experience, and others do not, we are forming
a special relationship with those things, with those people.

Even as we settle back to listen to a good symphony, we can remind ourselves
that what we are doing is a form of magic thought. The symphony has no power
to give us the experience; it has no more power than anything else. It is
our thoughts that give us the experience as we listen. What we experience is
not limited to the music; it is something inherent in our being. "God is in
everything I see because God is in my mind" (W-pI.30.Heading). We are the
source of the beauty, not the physical thing we have chosen as a doorway to
that experience of beauty. The beauty I think I see in the world is really
something in my Self, "my state of mind, reflected outward" (1:4).





From sue at circleofa.org  Sat Oct 31 13:23:35 2009
From: sue at circleofa.org (Sue Roth)
Date: Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:23:35 -0400
Subject: [acimlessons_list] LESSON 305 - NOVEMBER 1
Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAf2g1WykBJEsaWMEdkqQZvCgAAAEAAAAJ8CqtLsa+xMqNFYrya1tGsBAAAAAA==@circleofa.org>




LESSON 305 - NOVEMBER 1

"There is a peace that Christ bestows on us."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

See complete instructions in separate document. 
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the
day.Commentary

I find myself a little resistant to the lesson today. I judge it; it isn't
"inspiring enough," or it doesn't tell me anything new. It asserts this
wonderful peace, "a peace so deep and quiet, undisturbable and wholly
changeless, that the world contains no counterpart" (1:1). I'm not
experiencing that this morning. I'm not fraught with anxiety or anything,
but I have only a limited peace; it doesn't feel changeless; I think I could
be disturbed. So I feel a bit frustrated. I know that aloneness, for
instance, is there, gnawing away at the peace. It seems that it would not
take much to upset the boat, and my peace would disappear. I think this is
something most of us feel at times while reading the Course.

I recall one morning when I was doing a lesson, perhaps this very lesson,
and all it took to "destroy" my seeming peace was to have someone walk
through the room I was in-twice!

The lesson says that God's peace is a gift, "come to us to save us from our
judgment on ourselves" (2:3). It offers a prayer: "Help us today.[to] judge
it not" (2:2). How do we <judge> the peace of God?

I judge peace as <inappropriate> due to my circumstances. The peace of God
is here, now, and part of my mind believes that, but I refuse to let myself
accept it and <feel> it because my mind judges that peace would be
inappropriate because of some external circumstance. "I can't be peaceful
until <this> changes, until <that> changes, or until <this> happens." It is
an assertion of a belief that something other than the will of God exists,
something which has power to take away my peace. God gives the peace;
something else, something apparently more powerful, removes it. There <is>
no other will, nothing more powerful than God, but my refusal of peace is
asserting a belief that there is.

     You see what you believe is there, and you believe it there because you
want it there.
	(T-25.III.1:3)

The Course teaches that in reality I do not have peace because I don't
<want> peace. The first obstacle to peace is my desire to get rid of it
(T-19.IV(A))! That is the only reason. Since nothing really exists that can
take away the peace of God, my insistence that there is such a thing is a
delusion chosen to excuse my refusal of God's gift. "It isn't my fault!" I
can cry. "This person, this circumstance, did it to me. I want Your peace
but they took it away." I am projecting my refusal of peace onto something
else.

There is another way I judge God's peace. I judge it as weak and vulnerable,
easily disturbed.

Why would I want to get rid of peace? Why would I refuse God's gift? In
T-19.IV(A).2, the Text asks the same question: 

     Why would you want peace homeless? What do you think that it must
dispossess to dwell with you? 
     What seems to be the cost you are so unwilling to pay?
(T-19.IV(A).2:1-3)

There is something, Jesus is saying, that I think I will <lose> if I accept
peace. What is it?

It is the ability to justify attack against my brothers; the reasonableness
of finding guilt in them (see T-19.IV(B).1:1-2:3). I want to be able to
place the blame somewhere else. If I simply accepted peace I would have to
give up, forever, the idea that anyone else can be blamed for my
unhappiness. I would have to give up all attack, and behind that is the fact
that in order to give up attack, I need to give up guilt, I need to give up
feeling separate and alone, I need to give up separation. I need to give up
the belief in my own incompletion, which is the foundation of my belief in
my separate identity.

The peace of God "has come to save us from our judgment on ourselves" (2:3).
I judge myself as sinful, as unworthy, as incomplete. That judgment is
behind my need to hold on to attack as a defense mechanism, my need to have
someone or something else to blame for the inadequacy I see in myself.

If I accept the peace of God as <unconditional> peace it feels to me as if I
am giving up all hope of ever having things, and other people, the way I
want them. It feels as if I am saying, "It is okay if you don't love me and
leave me alone. It is okay if you take my money. It is okay if you ignore me
or mistreat me. None of this disturbs my peace." <Unconditional> means it
does not matter what the conditions are. And I don't want that! I want the
conditions the way I want them!

Unconditional peace! The very idea scares the living daylights out of my
ego. Everyone is seeking peace; of course they are. But we want to achieve
peace by adjusting the conditions according to our own idea of what will
bring peace. Jesus is offering to give us peace regardless of the
conditions. "Forget the conditions," he is saying. "I can give you peace in
<any> circumstance." We <don't want> unconditional peace; we want peace our
own way. "Peace?" we ask. "What about the conditions?" We don't want to hear
that they don't matter.

The truth of the matter is that our world reflects our mind. We see an
unpeaceful world because our minds are not at peace. We think the world is
the cause, and our peace-or lack of it-is the effect. Jesus is saying that
our mind is the cause, and the world is the effect. He approaches us on the
level of cause, not effect. He isn't going to change the conditions to give
us peace; he is going to give us peace, and that will change the conditions.
The peace of God must come <first>. We have to get to the point of saying,
"The peace of God is <all> I want." We have to give up all other goals,
goals related to conditions. Accept the peace, and the world projected from
our mind will change accordingly-but that is not the goal. That is not the
healing we seek; it is only the effect of the healing in our minds.

Father, help me today to accept the gift of peace, and not to judge it. Let
me see behind my refusal of peace my judgment on myself as unworthy of it,
and my desire to attack something outside myself and place the blame on it.
In the eternal sanity of the Holy Spirit in my mind, I <do> want peace.
Enable me today to identify with that part of my mind. Let me see the
insanity of holding on to grievances against anyone or anything. Speak to me
of my wholeness. Let me understand that what I see that contradicts peace is
not real and does not matter. It is only my self-judgment (which is not
real) projected on the world (which is not real). Heal my mind, my Father.
"Peace to my mind. Let all my thoughts be still" (W-pII.221.Heading). I am
home. I am loved. I am safe.

WHAT IS THE SECOND COMING?

Part 5: W-pII.9.3:1

The Second Coming ends the lessons that the Holy Spirit teaches, making way
for the Last Judgment, in which learning ends in one last summary that will
extend beyond itself, and reaches up to God.

The sequence the Course sees as ending the world, then, starts with our
individual minds going through the process of perception correction, or
forgiveness, until forgiveness has embraced the entire world. Each of us
comes, more and more, to see the real world, until all minds have been
restored to sanity, which is the Second Coming. This re-establishes the
condition in which reality can again be recognized. The lessons are over.
The Second Coming makes way for the Last Judgment (which is the subject of
the next "What Is" section, starting with Lesson 311). 

The Text has already discussed the Last Judgment at some length (see
T-2.VIII and T-3.VI); we'll touch on those passages with that next "What Is"
section. This single sentence, however, gives a couple of interesting
previews. The Last Judgment is called "one last summary" that is the
capstone of all learning. To the Course, the Last Judgment is something the
Sonship does, not God. Perhaps the best description of it is in a passage in
which the phrase "Last Judgment" does not even occur. It comes in the
section "The Forgiven World" (T-17.II), which speaks of how the real world
will appear to us, and then talks of the last evaluation of the world that
the united Sonship will undertake, guided by the Holy Spirit:

     The real world is attained simply by complete forgiveness of the old,
the world you see 
     without forgiveness. The Great Transformer of perception will undertake
with you the 
     careful searching of the mind that made this world, and uncover to you
the seeming reasons 
     for your making it. In the light of the real reason that He brings, as
you follow Him, 
     He will show you that there is no reason here at all. Each spot His
reason touches grows 
     alive with beauty, and what seemed ugly in the darkness of your lack of
reason is suddenly 
     released to loveliness.	(T-17.II.5:1-4)

This is the time when, at last, the nagging question we all ask-"Why did we
make this world in the first place?"-
will be fully answered, and we will see "there is no reason here at all."
Under His gentle tutelage, we will carefully search out "the seeming reasons
for your making it." We will at last be ready to look at that "terrible"
moment of the original thought of separation. What seemed irredeemably ugly
to us in our fear, will grow alive with beauty, and the loveliness of our
united mind will be restored and released to our awareness. The primal guilt
will finally be undone, and we will once again know our innocence.

The Last Judgment, which follows the Second Coming, will be one last, great
summary lesson of forgiveness. This lesson will "extend beyond itself" for
it will finally and decisively remove the last barrier of guilt, our
collective guilt at having tried to usurp the throne of God. It will reach
"up to God," for it will completely restore the memory of God to our united
mind. The way will be fully open for God to reach down and once again to
gather us into His Arms, home at last.